SIR – In this country, a person arrested and charged with an offence is considered innocent until proven guilty, after trial.

And the golden thread which runs through our legal system is that it is “better several guilty men (or women) are found not guilty than one innocent person convicted in error”.

Over recent years, there have been a number of cases where new evidence or technology etc has allowed some falsely imprisoned to be released.

And, whilst there are some more obviously guilty of heinous crimes, they like all others, are considered deserving of a defence council and a fair trial, before a verdict is reached.

The matter of the costs of solicitors, barristers and trials is an entirely separate issue and one alluded to by many in the past. But then the legal profession has always been a bit of a mysterious closed shop to outsiders which those within it probably prefer to keep that way.

Costs for any sort of legal work, eg a legal letter, are astronomically high and perhaps this is indeed an aspect in this country ripe for investigation and reform.

However, many MPs come from precisely this background which perhaps explains why nothing much has ever been done to reform the legal profession and its costs.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue