The Gazette 1967/71

postponing it, as the length of postponment cannot in any event be very long. In the matter of presentation of our case to cost committees of one kind or another the Councils' repre sentatives are greatly handicapped as indeed are the committees themselves by a lack of proper statistics. A questionaire was issued some years ago to supply this gap but the result was disappointing. I think this was not surprising because solicitors as a general rule do not have records which lend themselves to analysis under the heads which are required. What we will have to do is to make a time cost survey over a period in a number of offices covering a broad view of the profession both in size and geographically and in that way assemble a body of information upon which a scientific and well documented case can be constituted and presented. This operation will have to receive the most urgent attention from the new Council. Education The matter of the education of students and the work of the Court of Examiners has been during the past year of extraordinarily burdensome proportions. One of the reasons for this, although not the only one, is the num ber of applications for exemption from the preliminary examination. The Council after the most careful con sideration and after taking the best advice available decided that as from the present year under review no student's application for exemption would be considered except on I he basis that he had an open matriculation examination of one or other of our universities and that a matriculation acquired on the strength of having a Leaving Certificate examination result would not be accepted and that no other exemption would be given except in the most unusual circumstances. This was well publicised and was -circulated on more than one occasion to all the Secondary Schools in Ireland on the Department of Educations' mailing list but notwith standing that it is quite extraordinary the number of students who are apparently unaware of this require ment. It can be stated that a student who has had a Leaving Certificate matriculation be fore 1967 and has in the meantime been pursuing legal studies will be considered for exemption but not otherwise. We keep an open door to our pro fession but in the interest of the profession ultimately the Court of Examiners must be satisfied at time of entry of the student that he has the necessary educational and intellectual attainment to permit him successfully to accept the course of education prescribed and pass the necessary examinations. To admit a student who is not of this calibre is a neglect of duty by the Court of Examiners and the Society causing as it does misery to the student, financial loss to his parents and no good to anybody. If you would look at page 21 of the Annual Report you will see the extraordinary picture which presents itself and the seriousness of the problem with which the Council is faced. The number of In dentures registered in 1968 was sixteen up on the very high figure for last year, was more than twice the num ber of entries for 1964 and more than three times the number of entries for 1962. It remains to be seen how these new solicitors will be absorbed into the profession. I believe they will, provided the rate of entry is stabilised or even reduced somewhat but in the meantime great strain is put o~i the Council's Secretariat and upon the teaching facilities. We have retained a hall in which lectures are now given but the difficulty of synchronis-

tion to the extent that I have mentioned it is clear that there will have to be considerable increase in the finan ces of the Society first of all to set them up and to keep them properly staffed and in efficient working order. Therefore the Council have approved of the increases in revenue which appear before you in a subsequent resolution and which I trust will commend itself to this meeting. Professional Remuneration The various scales of costs now in operation are very much out of date having regard to the rapid fall in the value of monies in recent years accompanied by a spectacular rise in the cost of running a solicitors office which is now going to be very considerably increased as a result of the recent financial resolutions. Applica tions are being made to the various costs committees for suitable adjustments to meet these variations. There is such a number of these committees and their member ship is so diverse with the consequent difficulty in assembling meetings, that all these applications are extremely tedious and in many cases when the adjusted scales have been issued they are already out of date. Therefore while these applications will be pursued with vigour and urgency by the Council it must not be thought that because no results appear for a considerable time that it is due to any lack of zeal or industry on the part of the Council. In this connection I am personally glad to see that the Minister for Justice proposes to set up one committee to deal with all matters of costs. It would have considerable advantages. It would lead to, I hope greater expedition in arriving at decisions and it would lead to more rational relationship between the costs payable in different jurisdictions and fields of activity which are now in many cases quite unrelated and in some cases even contradictory. The constitution of this committee and the finality of its decisions are of course of infinite importance to the profession. The Council have therefore already sought from the Minister for Justice an opportunity of discussing with him these vital matters. One of the first things any such committee would have to do would be to inform itself of the principles upon which solicitors remuneration are to be based. If it follows the lead of the Prices and Incomes Board in England it will be on the basis of cost plus profit. Quite clearly this is not the principal upon which present committees operate. There is a large field of work for which the solicitor is paid below cost and sometimes nothing at all. This infers that the prin ciple of cross subsidisation is accepted by the committees and it is very difficult to see how in the absence of full legal aid in both Civil and Criminal matters any other system would work. The Criminal Legal Aid system as at present in operation is little more than rudimentary and of course there is no Civil legal aid. If the principle of cost plus profit is to be the basis it would mean that the solicitor would have to discard altogether the business for which he receives at present little or no remuneration and that would mean that poorer persons would be deprived of adequate or any access to legal remedies. This could not be tolerated in any truly democratic dispensation. It would seem therefore that any change from the system of cross subsidisation to cost plus profit basis for costs in extricably and inescapably involved with legal aid which is now in operation in almost every country. It is quite clear that Civil legal aid mcst come sooner or later and there does not seem to be very much point in