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Every initiative bona fide put forward deserves to be constructively explored. The fact that one can see various pitfalls as set out above does not mean there is no room for fixed fee work in some cases. The basic problem is that at the start it is simply not possible to assess how much work a given task is going to require. What if you are asked to quote for a piece of commercial litigation, but only subsequently told that your client wants a Mareva injunction, an Antonio Piller order -and a Norwich Pharmacal discovery exercise against three non-parties who became involved somehow? I was instructed by a client in the Opren litigation. When discovery was reached we were told that there was an airport hangar somewhere in the mid-West stuffed full of the papers required to be disclosed on discovery. It would have taken a whole team of experts twenty years to read it all.

And what do you do if your opponent, who is being paid on a work done and time taken basis, learns that you are on a fixed fee? He's basically got you over a barrel and can string it out to the point where the fixed fee man is working for £10/hour.

And what do you do if your client wants you to do something you consider unethical and you want to terminate the retainer? The fixed fee scheme anticipates that you see the job through to a conclusion and if you do not you are entitled to nothing.

The swings and roundabouts principle might work for routine conveyancing and probate, although I am presently involved in an estate where the Grant of Probate has so far had to be re-sealed in three different jurisdictions and we are still not quite sure that that will be all. How do you cater for that? And there were about 100 stocks and shares which were sold within 12 months of the date of death at a loss entitling the executors to recalculate the IHT liability.

I am all for exploring initiatives which may make life fairer for the profession and for our clients. But various scenarios need to be stress tested first.

Chinese doctors were paid as long as their clients remained fit and well. If they fell Ill their patients could stop paying. Now if that principle could be applied in some way to the legal profession.....