The Gazette 1976

GAZETTE

JUNE/JULY 1976

ENGLISH CASE

Extracts from Proceedings of the Council, 17th June, 1976. (ii) Notary Public.

Unqualified persons who only copy material submitted to them do not "draw or prepare" documents within the English Solicitors Act 1957 An association, which was formed with the object of reducing the high cost of conveyancing, undertook for its members, on payment of a fee, the general conduct of the members' property transactions. The association retained £2.50 of a fee paid and passed the remainder to one of its transfer agents, who under- took all the work involved in the transaction except drafting the instrument of transfer or conveyance. The draft was prepared by R, who was not a person quali- fied for the purposes of section 20 of the Solicitors Act 1957, and for that work R received no remun- eration. The defendants, who acted as transfer agents for the association and were also unqualified for the purposes of the section, were found by the justices to have directly or indirectly prepared such instruments and they were convicted of offences, contrary to section 20(1) of the Act. On the defendants' appeal against conviction: — Held, allowing the appeal, that "directly or indirectly" in section 20 (1) of the Act related to the words "draws or prepares" and the offence created by the subsection was the drawing or preparing, whether directly or in- directly, of an instrument that was prohibited by the section from being so drawn by an unqualified person (post, pp. 582b-d, 583b, h-584a); that (per Lord Widgery C.J. and O ' Connor J.) the concept of "draws and prepares" was the use of the intellect to compose the document by the selection of the correct words and to place them in the right sequence so that the docu- ment expressed the intention of the parties and, there- fore, since the defendants had not drawn or prepared the documents within the meaning of the section, they had committed no offence. Per Goff J. If an unqualified person doese any of the relevant acts, either himself or through another, he commits an offence under section 20 of the Act. The question whether the defendants did a prohibited act through R depended on whether they assumed respon- sibility for the particular act to the lay client. Having regard to all the facts, it was R who alone assumed responsibility to the clinet (post, p. 584a-c). (Lord Didgery C.J., O ' Co n n or and Goff J.J. - 10 March 1976 - [1976] W. L. R. Queens Bench Division Court.

The President sought endorsement of the action taken by the Society on his direction to object in the Courts to a lay resident of Shannon Town being appointed as a Notary Public. The line of action taken was approved. It was suggested that the Society's ppsition in the matter be brought to the notice of the Faculty of Notaries. (vi) Solicitors appearing in the High Court: Mr. Prentice asked if it would be possible for solicitors execising their right of audience in the High Court to indicate their name to the presiding Judge by presenting their card or otherwise at the opening of the case. It appeared that many young solicitors were now exercising their right of audience and Judges were embarrassed in addressing them, through not knowing who they were. (i) Land Registry. A letter from the Registrar recommending the sig- nature of mays was considered. Mr. Lanigan pointed out that local authority officers throughout the coun- try, on whom the profession relied to a large extent, would not be prepared to sign maps. It was agreed to publish the letter in the Gazette with a footnote draw- ing attention to the fact that the signing of maps was not required by the Rules. (i) Bar Council: The Council agreed to draw attention of members to the undersirability of sending files to Counsel. (v) Public Relations: The Committee expressed great concern over the increasingly bad Public Relations accruing to the pro- fession due to the continuing failure of the Bar to operate the Criminal Legal Aid scheme. Following discussion it was agreed to list the matter for the next Council agenda, in the event of no developments taking place in the meantime. In reply to a query from the President and Mr. Pigot, Mr. Beatty indicated that a reply to the Zander article would be published in the Gazette. The particular article had been published to acquaint the profession of the arguments which could be made against it and to give it an opportunity of putting its own house in order. Note: A temporary arrangement whereby Counsel can appear in Criminal Legal Aid Cases has been made between the Bar Council and the Minister for J ustice. Restriction on Second Apprentice Th e Council has decided that, as f r om 1st January, 1976. it will not normally grant permission to solicitors to have a second apprentice indentured to them. Society for Computers and Law Ltd. The second Conference of this Society will be held in Warwick University from 17th to 19th September on the Practical Benefits of the Compu t er for Lawyers. There will be demonstrations relating to new systems for handling time recording, tax modelling, retrieval of statute law, and drafting of wills and conveyancing documents. The cost for attending the Conference, in- cluding all meals and accommodation, will be £37.84. Application Fo rms should be obtained f r om Mrs. Diana Wilson, 6 Latton Close, Chilton, near Didcot, O X l l QSU, England.

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