Letter: Claims wouldn't stand up in court

Chris Blackhurst ('Sue, grab it and charge', 9 August) has surely gone over the top in an article which confuses English and American anecdotes in a misleading way. One might live with that, but the article contains two serious slurs.

The first is that City lawyers are so short of work that clients are being advised to litigate in circumstances where they probably have no case. He produces no evidence to back this assertion of widespread professional misconduct. It is, I believe, quite untrue.

He implies that City solicitors are pretending to their clients that work done by junior assistants or even trainee solicitors has been done by senior partners. Again, there is no shred of evidence to support this suggestion. There are readily available procedures for any client who feels he has been wrongly charged. Any solicitor who misled a client in the way suggested would be subject to serious disciplinary measures.

Mark Sheldon

President, The Law Society

London WC2