The Gazette 1967/71

We have to be ever watchful, but yet realistic, in rapidly could be dealt with separately either by discontinuing his membership of the group or loading his premium after a period of consistently unfavourable experience. This would mean that the proportion of uninsured offices, estimated at between 14% and 20% of the total who are at present uninsured would have to agree to join the group and accept the obligations of membership. It was suggested that the Society's bye-laws should be amended to provide that membership of a professional inseuranc indemnity group would be a condition of membership. This however is probably impracticable and would not I am sure obtain the unanimous support of our members for a proposal of this kind. The best available alternative which is at present under investigation by a committee of the Council with Messrs. Coyle & Co. Insurance Brokers who have been handling this matter for some ears is to try to develop a group scheme with the offices who replied to the Society's questionnaire as a nucleus. Insurance cover would have to be adequate and it might be necessary to provide that each policy should carry an excess. The fact that each member of the group would bear a certain proportion of the loss would in itself be an inducement to carefulness and adequate supervision in the execution of professional business. At the moment all I can say that this problem is engaging the unremitting attention of a committee of the Council. It would be misleading to say that professional negligence insurance is going to become cheap. So called professional negligence is often the result of ill luck as much as any definite culpability. The necessity of dele gating work, the complex nature of our laws and the continual changing spectrum of rules and regulations with which we have to deal widens the possible field of mistake and consequently of negligence. If with the help of our insurance consultants, we can get a group scheme off the ground we shall at least be in a position to satisfy ourselves that premiums charged are not unreasonable and we would also have informaton as to the amount and causes of losses. The matter is beng actvely pursued. THE KING'S HOSPITAL The King's Hospital, which the Society has purchased, was formerly the Blue Coat Hospital and was incor porated by Charles II in 1670. The present building was erected in 1773 and is a noble edifice of Portland Stone consisting of a Centre and Wings extending three hundred feet. Our plans embodying minimum essential interior alterations and the erection of a new administrative block to the rere have met with general approval, and we all look forward to next Summer when we will obtain posses sion and the work can be commenced. I would like to thank the Governors of the School and in particular the Reverend G. S. Megahy the Headmaster, for their courtesy in permitting so many of us to visit the School and be shown over the building from time to time. Our future headquarters will be a worthy showplace for visitors to our capital city and the citizens may, there fore, soon have something of which to be particularly proud. The King's Hospital is situate in a part of the City which has known better days, but it is quite central and perhaps we may start a new era of improvement for the locality. GENERAL In this country, as in England, we have experienced a growing tendency for encroachment from various quarters in what has always been regarded as strictly our domain.

changing conditions. We must, it seems, be prepared to to appear before the Fair Trades Commission and also to appear before, and participate in, the Body which the Minister for Justice suggests should supplant our Statutory Rules Committees. We have made representations to the Department when rumour had it that consideration was being given to the amendment of the law whereby we would have only one Taxing Master. We strongly oppose any such move. As a professional body we want no more than fair treatment both as to the scope of our services, and reasonable remuneration therefor. It has often been stressed by my predecessors that on the shoulders of the Legal Profession rests the assurance of the freedom of the individual. I am convinced that the people of this country have a keen appreciation of this, and of the vital role Solicitors play in modern society. We have implemented the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, and continue to implement it, despite inadequate finan cial reward. One might recall that the main reason for our initial opposition was simply that we were satisfied that in the field of crime no citizen ever lacked the ser vices of a lawyer merely because of lack of means, and the service was always available voluntarily. I believe that Civil Legal Aid should and must surely come and I am proud to be able to compliment the Law Students on establishing several Bureaux in Dublin and its suburbs whereby voluntary aid and advice is given to the poorer section of the community. I exhort Dublin Solicitors in particular to come forward and offer their time and assistance to these students and in particular those of my colleogues who have either wholly or partially retired, and who might therefore be better able to spare the time. There is already in existence a charitable orgnization namely the St. Anne's Secretariat of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which has provided free civil and occa sionally criminal legal aid in Dublin since 1930, and that organization has confirmed to me that the number of cases where a wife seeks advice and legal aid to obtain a legal separation has steadily increased, particularly in recent years. The pattern of these matrimonial cases is dismally familiar. The couple married young. In most cases they live in a Corporation house or flat and they usually have several children. The husband has been a habitual heavy drinker, or he is a mentally unstable person, who either has been treated as a voluntary patient in a mental hospital, or his conduct has given strong indications that he should have such treatment. His em ployment history may be bad, though a heavy drinker eh may have a trade or skill giving him good wages when he works. There is an inadequate contribution by the husband to the hohusehold expenses and sometimes none at all. He makes little contribution to maintaining family life with his wife and children. He may be living apart but more usually he is living in the family home demand ing his meals and marital rights, and usually has a history of wife beating. He sometimes has a pattern of going out nearly every night without his wife, refusing to say where he is going or has been, coming home drunk and quarrelsome. In a minority of cases there are complaints of association with other women, known or unknown. Some of these husbands ill treat their children, some will not, but some chillren in the family are mentally dis turbed in a majority of these cases. The wife very often sheows signs of the need of treament for mental upset, apparently the result of prolonged strain and physical ill treatment and financial worry. In the vast majority of these cases one would be able to accept the 69