The Gazette 1972

Ruling on Courthouses The Incorporated Law Society is to give careful study to the Hight Court ruling which directed the Minister for Justice, Mr. O'Malley, to have Drogheda Courthouse put into a proper state of repair. A spokesman for the society said today that the full text of Mr. Justice O'Keeffe's order would be con- sidered by a council meeting of the society in an effort to ascertain whether it would now be possible to proceed along similar lines in respect of several courthouses throughout the country. Said the spokesman: 44 It is generally recognised that many court premises, particularly the district court ones, are in an appalling state of repair—so much so that people find it very difficult to work in them. 44 Our view is that proper premises should be available

in all cases so that the administration of justice can be carried out effectively. 44 We will study Mr. Justice O'Keeffe's ruling with great interest so as to ascertain whether if it is possible for us to have similar orders made in respect of other premises which, like the Drogheda Courthouse are in a poor state of repair." The order, by the President of the High Court, was granted to the Drogheda Solicitors' Association. It directed the Minister for Justice, under the Courthouse (Provision and Maintenance) Act, 1935, to execute such repairs and do such other work as might be necessary to put the Drogheda court accommodation into proper repair and condition. (Evening Press, 18 April, 1971) occur, they alone have to be changed. All the unchanged copy can be used again since it is recorded. The unchanged copy can be re-produced as many times as necessary entirely automatically at speeds up to 180 words per minute. A good average typing speed is 40 w.p.m., though very few typists in fact achieve it because of error correction. However, once the text is accurately recorded on the magnetic medium the automatic typing process is error- free. At the same time, because error correction is so simple, the typist can work at her maximum draft speed. The overall effect of this is to considerably reduce turnaround time and indeed make the typist a con- siderably happier person. Complex layouts and tabular work become simple, while repetitive text can be automated. The text of the basic document is stored on the magnetic medium used. In the case of the MT72, it uses magnetic tape, which has enabled the Law Society to store Precedents for the folowing documents: 1. Power of attorney 4. Deed of seven-year covenant for tax purposes. It works very simply. The Society holds copies of the required precedent, the basic text of which is stored on magnetic tape. When you require an engrossment ready for execution you make amendments and send it in to the Society, who will return it with a top copy and one carbon copy engrossed, ready for execution by the parties. The rates work out at about £0.09p per folio for the whole job (precedent, engrossment and carbon copy) and is extraordinarily good value. Details of the service can be obtained from the Law Society, who will also advise on other types of work which can also be handled by the MT72. Order Forms are included with the current issue of this Gazette. 2. General purpose partnership 3. Deed of discretionary trust

A Money-saver for Solicitors The basic costs of Secretarial services have risen so dramatically over the past few years, that management has begun to take a hard analytical look at the financial considerations of putting words onto paper.

Between 1960 and 1971 the average cost of a business letter rose by 74% from 42p to 70p, a situation that has hit the legal profession more than most, especially in view of the fact that much of its work is repetitive. It was with this in mind, the the Law Society decided to acquire an IBM MT72 Typewriter, with its facility for storing text for automatic reproduction, and intro- duced its Precedent Bank and Engrossment Service. The Service was introduced to save solictors both time and money, although the reasons for justifying this supposi- tion take some explaining. In order to understand how the IBM MT72 works it is necessary to take a close look at the typing process. On average a typist makes an error every 75 to 125 words. When an error is made in the initial paragraphs, rather than erase, the typist usually decides it is Quicker to start a new page. Often as the typist nears the end of a page she is mwre likely to make errors, simply because she fears having to re-type the whole page. Making carbon copies also adds to the typing pressure due to the time and difficulty involved in making corrections. However, it is very often the author originating the paperwork who finds that a change is necessary even though the original text is free from typing errors. Changes occur for many reasons — new information, unclear wording, grammatical mistakes, etc. These can occur many times in the case of legal documentation and so single quite minor additions or deletions could necessitate the re-typing of the entire document. It is this that makes typing very expensive and IBM found a way round the problem when it introduced the concept of magnetic word storage to the typing process. Every stroke typed is simultaneously recorded on a magnetic medium so that when errors or alterations

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