I was concerned to read your recent article about the government's proposal to introduce hourly fees for civil trials, and even more disappointed to read the responses from the profession (see [2006] Gazette, 12 January, 3).

If these measures are introduced in the future, they will effectively put a price on access to justice that will be unaffordable to the vast majority of the public except the well-off, and they will effectively deny justice and access to the courts to the majority of people in this country.


Those who are responding to these proposals and are recognised as bodies that represent public or professional interests must make this point about access to justice and affordability central to their submissions, and keep doing so until the government gets the message.


Otherwise, if these proposals continue to proceed in the direction they have been going in the past few years, I cannot see any future for civil litigation practitioners in the high street, suburbs and small towns of our country, or increasingly any solicitors being properly able to represent the public when they have a justifiable claim to litigate.


Lawrence Marrow, London