The Gazette 1973

have been fully explored before the new powers were sought. In its announcement in the Gazette (supra) the Law Society mentioned some unsatisfactory elements of the present system many of which are difficult or impossible to refute. These include rising premiums, limit of cover to twelve months and the cumulative claims limit, so that the maximum sum for which insurance cover is given has to meet all claims in a year and not each individual claim. These are all matters of concern to solicitors but it is by no means clear how the estab- lishment of a master policy can avoid them, or those which I have not detailed. Group policy through selected company favoured What the Society might usefully be able to do is to assist the practitioner who is refused cover to obtain it through a group policy with a selected company which, on the basis of a wide portfolio albeit of high risk cases, would more easily be able to afford the risk. Whether this would be feasible I am not prepared to say, but the Law Society should include the possibility of this in its investigations. In conclusion, the indications are that, far from effecting reductions in premiums, the Law Society's proposals could well create increases owing, inter alia, to the creation of a monopoly coupled with compulsory insurance as a condition of practice. The solicitor will have to negotiate from a position of weakness. It is diffi- cult to see how any of the schemes proposed by the Law Society can be an improvement on the present system of negotiating professional negligence insurance individually in a free and competitive market with an insurer who is sympathetic to the requirements of the special needs of the profession. If these negotiations are conducted within the framework of a specialist negoti- ated arrangement, such as the British Legal Associ- ation's insurance scheme, which promotes and encou- ages a free interchange of views between practitioners and insurer, many of the problems and difficulties encountered would rapidly disappear. It is sincerely to be hoped that when the Solicitors (Amendment Bill is re-presented, this ill-considered provision will be omitted, or if included and passed, that the Law Society will consider very carefully the full implications of their proposals before using the powers which the section would give them. In the meantime practitioners who have hitherto overlooked the provisions of the Bill should give serious consid- eration to this one in particular, and make represen- tations not only to the Law Society but to their Mem- bers of Parliament before the provisions become law.

be underwritten profitably for it to be b^sed on a wide portfolio. If cover is to be effected by one or two companies through the agency of the Law Society, the element of competition will virtually disappear and will have seri- ous disadvantages to the profession. Innovations of cover brought into the market because of competition would probably never appear whereas now, if a solicitor finds the premium quoted unsatisfactory, he has at least other companies to which he can go for a quotation. On the other hand some solicitors with a clean sheet or low claims record may be called upon under the Law Society scheme to pay higher premiums than they had secured by private negotiation. The other alternative suggested by the Council of the Law Society is that its own common insurance fund or scheme should be established. It is not made clear how this will differ in cost, if at all, from putting all the insurance in the hands of one company (the master policy scheme), thereby removing the element of compe- tition completely. Full disclosure requirement inserted prematurely Many solicitors, too, would surely be apprehensive if the Law Society itself was operating the scheme in view of the special relationship which exists between the Society and the members of the profession on the one hand, and the desirability for complete disclosure on the other. Many solicitors will be distrustful of disclosing matters to their discredit to the Society although assur- ances have been given that the scheme would be oper- ated completely independently. Whatever assurances may be given at this stage they are no guarantee for future years. Also it should be noted that in Clause 16 of the current Bill an amendment has been made to Section 29 of the Solicitors Act 1957 giving the Council of the Law Society power to disclose a report on or information about a solicitor's accounts obtained in the exercise of their powers of inspection to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Is this the way the wind is blowing? It looks like the thin end of the wedge! It is noteworthy that recently the Law Society has circulated local law societies on the subject of the pro- posed insurance arrangements. One is, therefore, in doubt whether the problem or its solution were suffi- ciently considered before the clause in the current Bill was inserted. It is the writer's view that the clause was inserted prematurely and without adequate considera- tion of the consequences of the proposals, otherwise there is no reason why the Society should at this late stage be giving the consideration to the scheme which it should have given earlier. Surely all aspects should

DISSENT OF M A N - How Manxmen retain their system

Fire precautions in the Isle of Man had been criticised by the island's chief fire officer, Mr. Cyril Pearson, before the Summerland tragedy. There are no laws governing fire exits, alarms, or emergency lighting, and legislation equivalent to Britain's Fire Precautions Act 1972 is still being drafted. But this is not the only field in which Manx laws are different. The pubs stay open all day and moves to introduce the breathalyser have been stalled. Income tax is 21 per

cent, a car licence costs around £10, and there is no such thing as capital gains tax or estate duty. You drive at 16, vote at 21, and never serve on a jury if you are a woman. Youths are apt to be birched for a long string of offences, and students lose their grants for mis- behaviour. To the English—or the Welsh or the Scots—the laws of the Isle of Man are a chapter of anomalies, a jumble of measures combining fiscal laxity, social severity, and 250