Which hands feed us?

One of your correspondents (The Lawyer, 24 June 1997) appears to believe that the consumer is always right and says that it is all very well "to suggest tackling the lenders, but is that not biting the hands that feed us?"

I should have thought the point was that the lenders are the hands that are not feeding us.

Insuring people against a liability for which, in practice, they do not pay, calls for men in white coats. Although the lenders smugly tell us that it is for the solicitor to charge, they know perfectly well that in practice the cutthroat merchants prevent this happening.

The lender is a separate client. It is open to the insurance fund to refuse to insure a lender who has not separately billed for and been paid for its legal services by the borrower.



Adrian Pellman, solicitor

Berkshire.