The Gazette 1967/71

Association had been demanding increases of more than 100 per cent. The effect of the new scales will be to increase solicitors' income from county court work, exclu ding divorce, from £6 million to £8,500,000 a year. For collection of a £10 debt, a solicitor can charge 10s. under existing scales or 13s. if he serves the summons himself. These fees will be raised to £1 10s. and £2 respectively. A spokesman for the Law Society said yesterday they were not satisfied that the new fee scales would produce " fair and appropriate remunera tion." Mr. Morris Williams, vice-chairman of the British Legal Association, the more militant organisation representing solicitors, described the increases as " totally inadequate." The first P I B report said solicitors needed 93 per cent, to break even, he added. New scale charges for conveyancing are still being drawn up by the Lord Chancellor's Office. They have then to be sent to the Law Society and approved by a statutory committee. The Board proposed that the six per cent, cut should be in fees for properties sold for between £4,000 and £20>000, while fees for conveyancing of pro perties under £2,000 should be increased. SIX LAW MANAGERS WANTED The Lord Chancellor, Lord Gardiner, is seek ing £6,000-a-year " managers" for England's new-style judicial system. The people who fill the posts—they are open to men and women—will be called Circuit Administrators. At first they will plan the changes in the legal system recommended last September by the Royal Cqmrnission on Assizes and Quarter Sessions. After this they will ensure prompt hearings for civil and criminal cases on their Circuits. They will be based in London, Bristol, Bir mingham, Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester. The administrators will decide whether cases should be tried by High Court judges or Circuit judges. Court experience The posts are open to men and women from 45 to 55 years of age. They need not be legally qualified, but if they are, they must be barristers 154

wholly unjustified complaints and trying to settle others by explanation and conciliation, they would refer the most serious for further investigation by the Law Society and the Bar Council. Also recommended was the creation of a joint review body for the bar and solicitors, again with lay membership, which would hear complainants still dissatisfied after their cases had been investi gated by the Bar Council, the Senate of the Four Inns of Court and the Law Society. But its proceedings would be in private and although Justice suggests it should issue an annual report, it would not identify parties. One of the main criticisms from members of the public is, unlike doctors, that disciplinary proceedings against lawyers are conducted in private. In its report the Justice committee found that in view of the increasing burden of work on lawyers and the complexity of legislation, the number of complaints made to the Law Society —between 4,000 and 5,000 a year—was not sur prising. The committee criticises the professions' un willingness to investigate complaints that might lead to a court case for negligence against the solicitor. It should stop. — Daily Telegraph, 19th March 1970 SOLICITORS' COUNTY COURT FEES TO RISE 58 P.C. SOLICITORS are to receive a 58 per cent, increase in fees for county work from March 9. The increase was recommended by the Prices and Incomes Board last November. But a six per cent, reduction in conveyancing fees for middle-priced houses that the Board also recommended has still to be worked out and may not come into force until the summer at the earliest. The cuts are being doggedly resisted by the profession. In its two reports on solicitors' pay, the Board recognised the profession's claim that county court work was extremely uneconomic. Existing scales were fixed in 1955. Many firms have refused to take county court work because the scales were so low. More militant solicitors have threatened strike action for increases. But the new scales will not satisfy most solicitors. 100 p.c. demanded Both the Law Society and the British Legal