I was interested to read the article by Martin Cutts concerning the increasing number of errors, both grammatical and semantic, appearing in letters and other legal documents (see [2008] Gazette, 4 September, 8).

I was recently horrified to receive a letter from a fellow solicitor that repeatedly used the word ‘of’ instead of 'have'. This raised the worrying possibilities that either the solicitor in question was experiencing serious difficulties with basic English grammar, or that the letter had been typed and then not checked before it left the office. I consider it unlikely that this was a one-off event.

Solicitors have always been able to claim (and rightly so) a high level of professionalism. It is sad to see what could be the beginning of a slide in our shared standards.

Rachel TurnerPrince Evans, London