And for some sole practitioners that will be fine. But, for others, it will mean typing the letters themselves late at night, or hoping that their secretary not only sent the letters out but followed up to ensure that the client signed them. It will be one more administrative problem on top of too many other problems. The result will be a marginal increase in client protection, combined with a reduction in the number of sole practitioners overall and a reduction in the number of lawyers willing to do marginally profitable work. And therein lies the problem.
Regulations have costs.
Real economic costs. And the people who write those regulations are seldom the people who will be most adversely affected by them. Indeed, all too often the people who write regulations have little or no idea about the effect that their regulations will have on others. Some of you are no doubt thinking that even if all this is true, it begs the point since it is sole practitioners who cause the most disciplinary problems and thus they should be required to have written fee agreements. It is a common, if not particularly charitable, sentiment.