I was interested to note the letters in a recent issue (see [2006] Gazette, 23 March, 15). On the one hand, there are two addressing the increasingly worrying subject of home information packs (HIPs), the introduction of which I am confident will ring the final death-knell for the independent high street solicitor.

On the other, it was encouraging to note that space was given to correspondence regarding the clothes High Court solicitor-advocates should wear when in court and, more importantly, whether they should wear wigs. If the full horrors of the detrimental impact of HIPs on the independent legal profession are not addressed urgently, most solicitors will probably be wearing wooden overcoats, as a result of having committed suicide.


Anthony Mace, Bishop's Stortford