79 / 294
It will mean, depending on the terms of the Indem-
nity Act, that, for example, the case of Moore, the
former detainee who was awarded the maximum dam-
ages by Judge Gonaghan at Lurgan last week, could, if
the Government here so wished, be appealed and under
the terms of the new Act, with everything retrospec-
tively "legalised", he would perhaps lose his case. Again
of course it means that there is no point in anyone
trying, on the strength of our High Court decision, to
bring any action against troops for, say, arrest, for
detention or internment, for the treatment meted out
which the Gompton Report verified, for anything, in
other words, that soldiers have done that might have
been dubious under the law and open to challenge.
To your knowledge is there such an Indemnity Act
in preparation?
As far as I know there has been one on the stocks for
several months. Ever since the introduction of intern-
ment and the possibility raised by it that some time—
normally this is used when disturbances have ended—
an indemnity process might be needed. But if the
indemnity process were introduced now it could have
the effect of giving a freer hand than would be under
any circumstances desirable, to soldiers. The whole thing
is disturbing for many reasons.
Finally, Dr. Palley, do you think this has affected in
any way the current speculation and demands about
the transfer of security control to Westminster?
It would appear to have made it highly unlikely that
there will be any such transfer. After all you don't pass
a law one week and then take it off the statute books
the next. The Westminster Government had a perfect
opportunity in this situation to make clear where the
power and control over security lies but in fact by the
Northern Ireland Act, 1972, they have given Stormont
more power. It Would be unlikely that they would do
this today and take away all security power tomorrow.
All the objectives of protecting and empowering the
Army could have been achieved by an act validating the
existing regulations under the Civil Authorities (Special
Powers) Act and action thereunder. In addition the
regulations could have been validated for a future
limited period of time, say for one year. This time
period would then have necessitated proper consid-
eration by Parliament at Westminster of the question
as to which Parliament should control, co-ordinate and
authorise security and law and order powers. Now what
has been substituted is a major constitutional amend-
ment in the form of the Northern Ireland Act 1972
and a projected Parliamentary debate on security
powers.
The Irish Times
(25th February 1972)
Note
—This article was written before the British
Government introduced the Northern Ireland (Conse-
quential Provisions) Bill 1972 on March 28th.
Should Builders' and Developers'
Solicitors act (or Purchasers?
A member wrote to the Society referring to the situation
in Dublin and other parts of the country whereby
builders and developers of housing estates recommended
to a prospective purchaser of a new house that they
should use the builders' or developers' solicitors who
would act for them at a fee well below the scale under
the Solicitors Remuneration General Orders. Member
says that he knows from his personal knowledge and
has been informed by a number of colleagues that this
practice is widespread and that solicitors for builders
and developers accept these prospective purchasers as
their clients and charge fees which are a great deal less
than the statutory scale fee. In the present example he
cites a case in which a client asked him to state hi«
charge for the purchase of a house for £6,000. He
informed the client of the fee recommended in the
March/April edition of the Society's
Gazette,
£90 for
property without a mortgage and £120 for a property
with a mortgage. The client said that the transaction
would be done by the builder's solicitor for £50 and
that the builder had asked him to go to his own solicitor
which he subsequently did. Member suggests that the
Council should make a regulation forbidding solicitors
for builders and developers from acting for prospective
purchasers from their own clients.
The Council referred to the Solicitors (Professional
Practice Conduct and Discipline) (Amendment) Regula-
tions 1971 (S.I. No. 344 of 1971) made by the Council
on 16th December 1971 substituting a new paragraph
five of the principal regulations as follows.
"(5) A solicitor shall not obtain or attempt to obtain
professional business by directly or indirectly without
reasonable justification inviting instructions for such
business or doing or permitting to be done without
reasonable justification anything which by its manner,
frequency or otherwise advertises his practice as a soli-
citor or doing or permitting to be done anything which
may reasonably be regarded as touting and it shall be
the duty of a solicitor to make reasonable enquiry before
accepting instructions for the purpose of ascertaining
whether the acceptance of such instructions would
involve a breach of this regulation."
In the opinion of the Council the practice indicated
by member would be in contravention of this regulation
and it was decided that this matter should be brought
to the attention of members of the Society.
78