The Gazette 1967/71

Government that the desired object should be achieved by amending the existing law so as to provide that notice of appeal would automatically suspend the dis– qualification unless the District Justice on special stated grounds otherwise directed. It is undesirable that the Government should in cases of this kind interfere with orders made by the Courts. The Minister for Local Government considered the representations made by the Society and others and we are very glad that the objectionable section has been withdrawn and notice of appeal now stays all disqualification orders. Attention has been drawn by my predecessors to the ever increasing burden of the fees charged by the Government for the administration of the Courts and public offices such as Land Registry. I believe that the Court and Land Registry fees now being charged are about the highest in the world. The machinery of justice which is a public service should be available to all citizens but it is now being sold and sold at an exorbitant and uneconomic price. If a trader's estate falls into the hands of the Bankruptcy Office that office will charge 15 per cent, i.e. 3/- in the pound before any of the creditors receive a single penny. A fee of £6 is payable to the State on the simple operation of stamping and filing an originating plenary summons. This is twelve times the fee which was charged for the same service in 1939. This pattern runs throughout the whole scale of fees collected by the State in connection with the administration of justice. Taxation is being imposed by hidden means. The fees charged in the Land Registry have been increased in about the same dimensions. The public should know that solicitors' fees are not respon– sible for these increases; on the contrary the profession have to carry an extremely high burden of outlay in respect of fees paid on behalf of clients to the State which are not recoverable in many cases for lengthy periods and in some cases may be irrecoverable. The legal profession has in fact become part of the tax gathering machine. Stamp duties on property trans– actions are 3 per cent on the value, the highest rate in these islands. Liability for stamp duty full rate com– mences at £2,500 while in England exemption is extended to £5,000 or more and then the rate of duty is much lower than here. The report of the Commission on Higher Education has just been published. The Society submitted a memoran– dum to the commission in 1961 which contained a number of far reaching proposals. The system of legal education as affecting the solicitors profession has been handed down since the eighteenth century and is rigidly prescribed by statute. The Council made the following suggestions : 1. The entire system of legal education should be prescribed not by statute but by regulations made by the Society under statutory authority. The Society's regulations should be subject to the approval of the President of the High Court. This would enable the Society in consultation with the President of the High Court to modernise the system to meet present day requirements. Among the matters to be considered would be whether apprenticeship is necessary; if it is necessary the duration and nature of the apprenticeship; the subjects to be taught and the manner in which instruc– Court Fees Legal Education

tion should be given; the scope and nature of professional examinations. 2. The present system of apprenticeship is unsatis– factory. It runs concurrently with university studies and studies in the Society's Law School. The memorandum suggested that there should first be compulsory university degree followed by or combined with instruction in technical professional subjects at the professional Law School. Students should be entitled to present themselves for the Society's examinations during this period. On passing the examinations there should be a chorter period of wholetime service as an apprenticed or articled clerk in an approved solicitor's office for one to two years preferably at a salary. The Council took the view that a shorter period of service woule be more beneficial provided that it is wholetime and not concurrent as at present. 3. The Society also suggested that there should be a common system of legal education for barristers and solicitors and that there should be greater facilities for transfer from the Bar to the solicitors profession and vice-versa. The present provision of the Solicitors Acts and the regulations of the Benchers of King's Inns, which provides that a practitioner may not change from one branch to the other until after five years practice, is unnecessarily restrictive. It would be of benefit to the legal profession as a whole if every law student whether destined for the solicitors profession or the Bar served the short two year period in the office of a practising solicitor before admission. If this were done the student could elect on admission for the branch of the profession of his choice and should be entitled to change from one to the other at any time but not to practice both concurrently. 4. The Council also suggested that in regard to the large numbers of solicitors' apprentices who attend the University Law Schools the Incorporated Law Society should be entitled to have representation on the govern– ing bodies of the universities. Now that the report of the Commission on Higher Education has been published the Society are taking steps to initiate discussions with the Benchers, the universities and the Government. The Committee of the Council has been studying the problem of maximum efficiency in solicitors' offices and an article on the subject was printed in the Society's Gazette in January last. The subject has also been included in the instruction given to solicitors' appren– tices. Allied to the question of office organisation is the matter of co-operation between solicitors in the daily conduct of business. This has also been the subject of announcements made by the Society from time to time and a further article will be published in the Gazette. The Council submitted a memorandum to the Commis– sion on the Courts suggesting reforms in Court proce– dure. A copy of the memorandum is in the hands of each member attending this meeting. I am afraid that the Court of Justice have become the Cinderella of the public service in this matter. While the Departments of Finance, Industry and Commerce, Agriculture and other economic departments are daily occupied with proposals to improve their efficiency, the mechanical organisation of the Courts of Justice and the offices with which solicitors deal shows little change. Such matters as Office Organisation Organisation and- Method in the Courts