The Gazette 1971

medicine and other professions at least to the extent of preventing unqualified persons from using a profes- sional description. The Oireachtas has recognised the need for protection as recently as 1963 by creating the new profession of trade mark agent. The removal of restrictions could also open the field to malpractices. The penal sanction of striking off the role would be gone with consequent lowering of stan- dards. Solicitors themselves might be tempted to reduce the quality of professional service in order to get busi- ness and in competition with others. There may be an arguable case for terminating the so called legal mono- poly. It is, however, not tenable to argue that the restrictions on practice should be removed while con- tinuing the present statutory restrictions on fees. If solicitors are to compete with non-lawyers in their field of practice they should also have the same freedom to fix their own fees as, say, chartered accountants in Ireland and elsewhere, and solicitors in Scotland where the scale charges in non-contentious matters are pre- scribed by the law Society. Competition The economic arguments for price competition in the professions with the concomitant practices of adver- tising, undercutting and supplanting, which have always been regarded as unprofessional, are that they would (a) reduce legal charges, (b) promote business efficiency by driving our in- competent practitioners and encouraging amal- gamation and large scale operations of the Marks and Spencer type together with the use of machinery and up-to-date methods of process- ing work. As opposed to this view it is said that competition of the commercial type is inappropriate to professional work where the emphasis must be on quality and in- tegrity. Is a system of cut-throat competition desirable with prospective clients hawking business from office to office to get the lowest cut price? It would lower standards, cause professional financial failures and lead to claims on the compensation fund. The existence of the compensation fund is hardly an argument for en- couraging practices which may lead to claims against the fund—which, incidentally, is not inexhaustible. Solicitors compete with one another on the basis of pro- fessional skill and efficiency. There is an adequate supply of solicitors in the country to satisfy the public need and there is nothing in the nature of a large scale monopoly of the trust or cartel type. If full scale com- mercial competition were to become the rule in the legal profession there could be a tendency for the smaller offices, which perform a useful service particul- arly in outlying districts, to be replaced by larger units in urban centres. Competition might therefore tend to defeat its own object as the closure of offices in small towns would result in concentration of work in larger

units and probably a refusal to accept the type of busi- ness which is now carried on in many branch and sub- offices. The result in the end might be larger incomes for practising solicitors but a loss of professional ser- vices to clients in isolated districts with small means. Competitive advertising by professional men would not increase the quality of professional services. It would be expensive and the cost would have to be recovered in fees. By a process like that of Gresham's law the result in some cases might be that the bad would drive out the good. The object of commercial advertising is to generate a demand for consumer goods. The legal profession exists to satisfy a demand which already exists and it is questionable whether individual adver- tising with a view to increasing the public demand for legal services in litigation and other fields would have any long-term advantages. This, however, is not to sug- gest that there is no case for institutional, informative publication by professional bodies on behalf of their members as a whole and this has already been under- taken by the Society although on a limited scale. The effect of solicitors' earnings on inflation Professional fees have probably a small influence on prices. Solicitors' fees must have a smaller effect than many other professions because of the small "legal costs" content in most jobs. The statements of Pro- fessor Fogarty of E.S.R.I, on this topic have been men- tioned already. Responsibility with Independence The solicitors' profession has no inbuilt resistance to change or to a full examination of its professionsl rules and practices; on the contrary, it is welcomed by the profession. The Council of the Law Society suggested to the Minister of Justice in 1962 the appointment of a single statutory body to deal with all professional remuneration and in 1969 they repeated this sugges- tion and offered to accept a committee which would include representation of the public and experts such as chartered accountants who are familiar with con- ditions in the commercial as well as the professional field. They have, however, insisted on one condition— that control over the orders made by such a committee would rest with the Oireachtas not the executive or the civil service. For the preservation of the liberty of the subject and the rule of law it is essential that the legal pro- fession above all should preserve its independence. From this it follows that the profession should have the right to regulate its own affairs, have adequate economic resources to enable it to act fearlessly and that it should not have to perform its duties in pre- serving the rights and liberties of the citizen under conditions calculated to render it subservient to external pressure. If the independence of the profession were significantly curtailed a vital safeguard for the liberty of every citizen would be curtailed with it. (By permission of the New Irish Jurist)

The President and Vice-Presidents Mr. James W. O Donovan of Cork City has been

Osborne of Naas, Co. Kildare have been elected Vice-

elected President for the year 1971-72. Mr. T. V. O'Connor of Swinford, Co. Mayo and Mr. William A.

Presidents.

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