My Saturday paper had a feature recently on how to avoid problems with your builder.

One suggestion was if you have a contract worth over £8,000 then get a solicitor to look over it first before you sign anything.

It would only cost £200 or so.

So the following Monday I was expecting to see a small queue of clients holding contracts in one hand and cheque books in the other.

Or even better two queues, one for clients and one for builders.

Sadly I was disappointed.

Clients of course would not want to spend anything on legal advice in this situation.

The most they would do is possibly ask a friend to look at the contract, if there is one of course.

If you are lucky there might be a letter spelling out what work should be done.

If unlucky, there would be a dimly recollected chat when the tradesman came round, took a large intake of breath and said 'you will need an RSJ'.

Very few clients would invest £20 on legal advice, let alone £200.

No doubt if they had bought a car for £8,000 or a holiday they would get insurance and gladly pay that.

But legal advice no.

One afternoon a prospective client came into the office wanting advice on an endowment mortgage which he had been mis-sold. The policy was worth £30,000 or so.

He wanted some advice and mentioned he was in a hurry as his car was parked on a double yellow line.

He was not even prepared to invest a pound or so on a car park ticket, despite having a potential claim of thousands.

No matter what area of law a solicitor wants to go into and who doesn’t want to find a new area, we are limited by the client’s expectations.

If a client is owed £1,000 he wants his money back.

All of it, as that is what he is entitled to.

He does not want it to cost him anything.

In some ways Supermarket Law does not worry me because the sort of case a person would want advice about while they are doing their shopping may not be the sort of life changing money spinner that I will miss.

I am not I hope being snooty about people who go to supermarkets as I spend much of my time there myself and queue up with other legal aid lawyers at the 'Quick sale – still fresh' counter.

Solicitors do best what they do best, which sadly is clearing up the pieces when it has gone wrong.