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GAZETTE
JULY/AUGUST 1992
was such, according to Stuart-Smith
LJ, that the appellants owed her a
duty of care including a duty not to
require her to work excessive hours
so that her health did not suffer.
The actual tort of negligence was
not made out as there was no
evidence that her health did in fact
suffer. But on the facts found by the
trial judge there were breaches of
those duties.
There were implied terms in the
contract that the respondent should
not be required to work excessive
hours, should be provided with
adequate food and clothing and
should have reasonable opportunities
for social development, including the
study of domestic science.
In addition to the actual physical
assaults, which were not serious but
must have been painful and
humiliating (according to Stuart-
Smith LJ), the respondent was
treated as a drudge and skivvy,
inadequately fed and clothed and
required to sleep on the floor. She
was deprived of normal social
intercourse and effectively through
fear confined to the house and
garden for two and a half years.
The Court of Appeal reduced
damages for breach of contract,
assault and intimidation from
£25,000 to £20,000 but ordered the
appellant to pay the costs of the
appeal from the County Court.
Steyn LJ agreed.
The Voice Typewriter
At the ninth annual Solicitors' and
Legal Office Exhibition held recently
in London, ASA-VoiceWriter Limited
(Knightsbridge, London), introduced
its system called DragonDictate
which turns a personal computer
into a voice-driven word-processor.
Personal computer users who cannot
or do not want to type can create
letters, memoranda, reports,
documents and free text by speaking
instead of typing.
The system is operated by speaking
into a microphone instead of typing
at the keyboard.
The question was asked - what if I
say a word that the system doesn't
know - like unusual names, rare
words and invented words. The
system apparently would think you
said something else, so one has to
type in the correct word and the
system, i.e. DragonDictate, adds it to
its vocabulary. The next time one
says the word, it will be there. If you
do not want it typed, you spell the
new word by voice.
A question often posed is what if
the speaker has a strong accent. The
answer was that as long as you
speak consistently, the system will
learn your accent and manner of
(Cont'd from page 220)
I do not set down these thoughts
today to merely catalogue a litany of
gloom. Hopefully, you do not suffer
my dilemma. And it is not my
purpose to say that lawyers should
sacrifice personal goals of financial
success or that there is even
something unworthy about such
goals. There is not. For it is
financial success which can give each
of us the freedom and time to
address the public dimension of our
profession, and the needs of our
communities. But a new balance
must be struck; a renewal of the
centrality of some of our
profession's traditional values must
be awakened.
So I do ask you to ever remember to
instill and recall always within
yourselves those high standards of
our precious craft and the endemic
vitality of the public trust impressed
upon lawyers of all free nations
which for centuries have ennobled
our ancient calling and which will
be remembered long after our
word processors and time sheets
are relegated to history's junk pile.
Lawyers must reach for decision, not
delay; we must strive for comity, not
speaking. You don't have to speak
"RTE English" to use the system. It
was said that one DragonDictate
user was a lawyer with cerebral
palsy. Previously he had been
dependent on secretaries to
transcribe his dictation. Now he uses
DragonDictate. For the first time in
over fifteen years of practice he is
able to work on his own, to
complete work from start to finish.
Other persons can use the system.
Each speaker has a personal speech
file. When you identify yourself to
the computer, it knows who is
talking.
Lawbrief
cannot vouch for this latest
system of technology: we live in
exciting technological times.
•
contentiousness; we must build for
usefulness and public service, not
triviality or mean pettiness; we must
maintain a proportion and balance
between means and ends, and
between the service we render and
the fee we charge. During your
successes you must be vigilant to the
uncertain morality triggered by
advertising and solicitation (if you
don't now have it, be vigilant against
it); to the cost of litigation to client
and society; to speedy and fair
alternatives to dispute resolution; to
the access to lawyers' services by all
components of your community;
and, pivotal to all else, to personal
ethics and self discipline.
Lawyers belong to a select group. In
a sense, because your art requires
confidence and unquestioned trust,
your calling is close to being a holy
one. People rely on you; cities,
institutions, sometimes nations rely
on you. That is what makes lawyers
different.
But you must earn that responsibility
and the right to discharge it well.
How does one go about achieveing
this awesome goal? With ideals.
•
A profession . . . if we can keep it
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