I read with interest the article 'Rule of law not just responsibility of lawyers and judges, says ABA president' (see [2007] Gazette, 11 October, 6).


I find it slightly arrogant for the American Bar Association to claim to teach other countries how to run themselves when its president says that, in his own country, 'some 80% of people who qualify for a legal service through need cannot afford it - and so they don't get it'.



Surely, on any basis, it is denial of justice that, if you are in the top 20% in the US, you can obtain justice, but if you are in the other 80%, you cannot - not even if you are on death row.



I was always told that charity begins at home - but then I'm probably old-fashioned.



Martin Ross, Brighton