229 / 294
Commissioners for Oaths
A three-year qualification to be appointed as Commis-
sioner for Oaths is no longer necessary. For many years
the Courts have operated a rule of practice appointing
solicitors as commissioners for oaths by which the appli-
cants were required to have not less than three years in
practice as a condition of eligibility. The Chief Justice
has now reviewed this practice and has decided that it
no longer serves any useful purpose. He has accordingly
indicated that he will in future not require a solicitor-
applicant to be a practising solicitor of not less than
three years standing and has requested that this infor-
mation be brought to the notice of the profession.
Should a Solicitor give an undertaking without
an Irrevocable Retainer by the Client?
The Council have been considering the difficulty in
which a solicitor can find himself when he has given an
undertaking on behalf of a client and the client subse-
quently withdraws his retainer and instructs some other
solicitor. Depending upon the terms of the undertaking
given a solicitor could in certain circumstances find
himself in a position of grave embarrassment. For ex-
ample if a client instructed a solicitor to give an under-
taking to a bank to pay over in discharge of an over-
draft monies coming to his hands belonging to the client
and if the client subsequently terminated the retainer
and called upon the solicitor to account to him for all
further monies coming into his hands or already held
and not paid over in accordance with the undertaking
the solicitor might find himself liable to proceedings
by the former client for the recovery of his money on
the one hand and proceedings by the bank on foot of
his undertaking on the other.
The Council have approved of the following form of
authority and undertaking which a solicitor could use
on being instructed and prior to giving any under-
taking on behalf of the client. The solicitor should
write to the client as follows :
Dear Mr. A. (client),
In order to complete this matter I shall have to give
an undertaking to the bank which will bind me profes-
sionally to (set out the terms of the undertaking).
I must have your authority and retainer both of
which shall be irrevocable in order to give this under-
taking and if you will write that you agree I shall
proceed with the matter immediately.
Yours faithfully,
(Solicitor).
An unconditional affirmative reply in writing from
the client will constitute the necessary authority. The
solicitor would then be in a position, if the client pur-
ported to terminate the retainer, to act according to
the undertaking given to him. The letter in reply from
the client should be stamped with the appropriate
revenue duty. This is £0.50 in the case of a document
under seal. The duty of £0.2^ on agreements under
hand only has been abolished.
Members are advised to refer again to an important
statement regarding undertakings at page 185 of the
June
Gazette.
This deals with other important matters
precedent to the giving of an undertaking, e.g. the
existence of an enforceable contract and what happens
if either party is unable or unwilling to complete and
the provisions which should be included in its under-
taking to provide for such contingencies.
New Court Rules
District Court
The District Court Rules Committee has made new
rules providing for an increase of 25 per cent in the
costs of the former jurisdiction and also providing a
new scale of costs for the extended jurisdiction. Subject
to concurrence by the Minister the new rules will'come
into operation in September 1972. These rules will be
published in full in the November
Gazette.
Circuit Court
New rules providing a scale of six day costs are
already in operation. The general scales of costs for soli-
citors were agreed and were submitted by the rules com-
mittee to the Minister for Justice who signified his con-
currence and returned the rules to the committee.
Agreement as to the rules concerning the rules and
scales of counsels' fees was not reached. The Minister
indicated that he was prepared to sign rules dealing
with solicitors' costs. At the last meeting of the rules
committee the rules relating to solicitors' costs were
considered. The rules as received from the Department
were not signed and the matter was deferred to a meet-
ing to be held in October.
High Court
Agreement was reached between the Society and the
rules committee and the Department of Justice for an
increase of 20 per cent of the present scales. Rules were
made by the committee and submitted to the Minister
for signature. They have not been signed pending dis-
cussion between the Minister and the Society on certain
matters. A meeting to deal with these outstanding mat-
ters will be held in the near future.
Land Registry
The Council were informed that rules giving effect
to an increase of 30 per cent on the costs of voluntary
transfers, applications under Rules 33-35 and costs
under Rules 121 (6) have been made and will take
effect from 2nd October 1972.
- 2 3 3