Your recent editorial makes a point that many private practice solicitors do not seem to have noticed (see [2004] Gazette, 24 June, 12).


There is an ever-widening gap between what clients can do for themselves and what they can afford to have solicitors to do for them. This huge gap in the legal market is addressed by my high street firm's law shop department, which sells legal forms, books, kits, as well as basic, non-specialist, legal advice at £10 per 10 minutes of the solicitor's time.


High street shops have not been wiped out by supermarkets because supermarkets cannot satisfy customers who want local, quality, personal service at reasonable prices. The trouble with the profession is that it has become more and more specialised. Therefore, it is more expensive, leaving an enormous gap in legal services provision for people whose legal problems are just too hard for them to tackle unaided, but not hard enough to justify solicitors fees of more than £100 per hour, plus VAT.


High street solicitors would do themselves and the public a favour and give the profession at large a PR boost, if they provided law shop style services to meet this void. The clients love it. The insurers accept it and it pays its way.



Peter Browne, Peter Browne Solicitors, Bristol