The Gazette 1967/71

the Bar Council on 16th May and 6th June, and at a General Meeting of the Bar on 16th June, the following are now Rules of the Bar which you may wish to communicate to the members of your Society: — 1. It is a general rule of conduct and etiquette of the Bar that Senior Counsel ought not to appear in any Court of Law without a Junior (save where the existing practice otherwise permits) but this rule should not in general apply to proceedings other than proceedings in Courts of Law. 2. It is not necessary for Junior Counsel to be briefed with Senior to appear. i) at Arbitrations; ii) at Planning Appeals and the like; iii) before the Land Commission; iv) before the Comptroller of Industrial Prop erty; unless Junior Counsel has settled docu ments for the hearing. Where such documents have to be settled, they should be settled by Junior; v) before the Revenue Appeal Commissioners; vi) before the Redundancy Payments Appeals Tribunal. 3. In all cases where Senior Counsel appears with out a Junior it is improper for him to accept a fee less than 50 per cent higher than the fee normally charged by a Junior for that particular work. 4. Where Counsel accepts a brief he has an obligation to attend the trial or hearing. Where more than one Counsel is briefed each must attend the trial or hearing unless prevented by unavoidable and unforseen conflict of commit ments. If any Counsel finds, subsequent to accepting a brief, that he is unable to attend, he must return the brief to his solicitor as soon as possible. The foregoing Rules shall prevail in any case in which they conflict with any previous Rule of the Bar Council.

PART V STAMP DUTIES

A summary of the changes with precedents of transaction certificates is enclosed as an inset. PRACTICE NOTE Affidavits of Discovery injf Land Registry The Society has been in communication with the Land Registry on the subject of the proper person to make an affidavit of discovery for Land Registry purposes. Members of the Society had questioned the practice of the Registry in refusing to accept an affidavit of discovery made by the director of limited company while accepting an affidavit made by the secretary of the Company. The Society is informed by the Registry that the law agent of a company has the means of knowledge to make an affidavit of discovery. It is also accepted that the secretary of the company has the necessary means of knowledge since he is the company's adminis trative officer. It is not accepted that a director has by, virtue of his office, necessarily the requisite knowledge of the facts to make the averments in an affidavit of discovery. However an affidavit of discovery made by the director of the company has always been accepted in the Registry when it is averred in the affidavit that the director has the necessary means of knowledge. MATRICULATION EXAMINATION A number of students at University College appear to have been misled by a reference in the N.U.I, matriculation regulations into thinking that mathematics is not an essential subject at matric ulation for students intending to apply for regis tration of indentures of apprenticeship with the Society. This of course is incorrect. English, Mathematics and Latin are essential subjects at the Society's preliminary examination and for Matriculation purposes where exemption is sought from the Society's preliminary examination on the basis of the open public Matriculation. Members of the Society intending to take apprentices should draw the attention of the students to this fact. CORRESPONDENCE From the General Council of the Bar of Ireland, Law Library, Four Courts, Dublin 7. Dear Mr. Plunkett, As a result of resolutions passed at meetings of

Yours Sincerely, G. D. COYLE Secretary.

MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY OF IRELAND OFFICERS 1969-70 The following Officers were elected for the Session 35