The Gazette 1973

EDITORIAL The Bankruptcy Law Report The Report of the Bankruptcy Law Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Budd, was recently published, and the major recommendations have been inserted elsewhere in this issue. It is indeed high time that the old Acts of 1857 and of 1872 should be repealed, and the Committee have drafted a compre- hensive new Bill which incorporates their recommen- dations. It will be seen that the Official Assignee will henceforth be invested with all necessary powers in connection with a bankrupt's property. The Committee have also drafted rules incorporating the more modern ideas of bankruptcy procedure; if their full recommen- dations with regard to the draft Bill and to the Rules are adopted, which seems likely, then we will soon have an up-to-date bankruptcy code. The Committee is to be congratulated for having given us a useful historical analysis, and for the learning and erudition displayed in the report. The Irish Penal System A most useful volume on this subject is to be published by the Prison Study Group comprising at least three lawyers, under the auspices of the Department of Proceedings of the 20th SEPTEMBER 1973 The President in the chair, also present: Messrs W. B. Allen, Walter Beatty, Bruce St. J. Blake, John F. Buckley, John Carrigan, Laurence Cullen, Gerard M. Doyle, Joseph L. Dundon, James R. C. Green, Michael P. Houlihan, Thomas Jackson, John B. Jermyn, Francis J. Lanigan, John Maher, Patrick C. Moore, Patrick McEllin, Patrick McEntee, Brendan A. McGrath, John J. Nash, George A. Nolan, Patrick Noonan, John C. O'Carroll, Peter E. O'Connell, Dermot G. O'Donovan, William A. Osborne, Peter D. M. Prentice, Mrs Moya Quinlan and Ralph J. Walker. Members taking an assignment against their own client Members wrote stating they had acted for a client in a High Court action in which judgment was given against their client. They were then instructed to pay the debt in order to secure the release of certain prop- erty of the client. They duly paid the debt out of money provided by the client. The solicitor on the other side then raised the question of his costs and refused to release the property unless he was paid his costs. Mem- bers then gave an undertaking to discharge costs where taxed. Their client refused to indemnify members and when called upon members had no alternative but to discharge the costs out of their own pocket. To secure their rights against their own client members took an assignment from the plaintiff to the amount of costs THE SOCIETY

Psychiatry, U.C.D. The authors prove conclusively that the Irish prison system is antiquated, and is based on punishment rather than reform. "The education of prisoners had never been taken seriously in Irish prisons, and no attempt was being made to teach pris- oners anything to help them to get employment on release. Although a daily sum of £8.87 is spent on each prisoner, there is little to show for it; the average prisoner is a product of the slums of the cities, usually from a family where unemployment is rife; they spend fifteen hours per day in their cells." There is not even a library service in Mountjoy, although there is one in Portlaoise; there is no doubt but that the personnel of the Visiting Committees, who have power to inflict punishment, is most unsatisfactory, and requires to be radically altered. When the Minister announced recently the appoint- ment of a Director of Health and of a Director of Studies for Prisons, he was only carrying out the mini- mum reform necessary in the circumstances, but it is astounding that he did not grant this learned group full facilities to inspect prisons in detail; much of the evid- ence which they have adduced has inevitably come from Prison Reports. This is a vital study of current prison conditions in Ireland which deserves a wide circulation. Council which they had paid on foot of their own undertaking. They now want to apply for an execution order as assignee of the plaintiffs under Order 42, Rule 24, of the Superior Court Rules (alternatively they could pre- sumably sue their client for indemnity on the basis of money paid on his behalf). The Council upon a report from a committee submitted that member had not acted unprofessionally in the circumstances. It is, how- ever, a matter for the Court as to whether such an assignment is enforceable against the client. Counsels' fees in the Circuit Court Members wrote concerning the difference between counsels' fees in Circuit Court matters as prescribed by the Bar Council and by the Circuit Court Rules. The Council were informed that some Circuit Court judges allow the scale of fees prescribed by the Bar Council to a successful litigant. The Council decided that they should endeavour (a) to meet with representatives of the Bar Council and (b) to recommend to the Bar Council that they approach the President of the Circuit Court. The Council felt there was no further action available to them. Member bound by undertaking though not aware of full circumstances Members wrote stating they acted for a British client who hired a car in the name of a lady whom he de-

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