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The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
[JUNE, 1921
conditions.
I pray God that it may be so,
and I exhort you to acquit yourselves in any
reorganisation of our national affairs with
credit to yourselves, to your profession, and
to your country.
It is my duty as President to review the
work of your Council during the past half-
year as it affects you, and as it affects the
public whom we serve.
Your. Council commenced its labours in the
present year deprived of the valuable assist–
ance of
their former colleague and past
President, Mr. Charles St. G. Orpen, who
after unselfish and attentive service to your
Council for fifteen years resigned, much to our
regret and to your loss. We have, however,
been strengthened by new blood, and our new
colleagues
have
fully
justified
your
confidence.
For a long time it has been felt that the
highly technical and laborious process of
rendering legal charges in detail was not only
undignified, but in a great many instances
unnecessary.
The legal work of a Solicitor, involving as
it does expert legal knowledge and training,
with the incidental anxiety, responsibility
and expense,
is practically impossible to
delineate accurately on paper, and
the
antiquated medium of a bill of costs not only
fails to do this but presents a number of
unintelligible items, often both confusing and
irritating to the client.
In England this form
of recording professional services has been in
practice superseded for some time (subject of
course to the right of the client to have details
if
required),
and
professional
accounts
furnished in globo. By a general Order
under the- Solicitors' Remuneration Act it has
been enacted that professional accounts in
this country in respect of legal business under
that Act to which no settled Scale fee attaches
may be furnished in gross, reserving the right
of the client so requiring it to full details, and
to taxation within twelve months of furnish–
ing the account, or within one month of its
payment.
I don't think the public ever suffer by any
reform that adds to the dignity of professional
life, and I don't think they will have any
cause to complain of the deprivation of that
particularly unpalatable class of
literary
refreshment known as
a bill
of
costs,
especially as those who still thirst for it
can get it.
On the subject of professional remuneration
(a topic I do not wish to labour) it has been
necessary in the altered economic conditions
to. bring them in common with all other
professions and business more into proportion
with the increased cost of living ;
the wind
has been tempered to the shorn lamb by an
increase which but partially effects
this
object. We hope, however, that improved
conditions may help to equalise matters, but
at present the advantage is with the public,
and we are the sufferers.
In this connection an increase of 50% has
been made
in
local Bankruptcy Court
proceedings in order to bring it into line with
what has been done in relation to High Court
business.
My first experience on becoming as your
President a member of
the Rule-making
Authority was in connection with the framing
of Rules of Court, rendered necessary by that
startling development of modern times, the
Lady Juror, Rules rendered necessary in
connection with the empanelling of mixed
juries.
The Treasury have
increased
the
fees
payable in the Registry of Deeds, a tax which
falls upon the public, but which I record as
every increase of the kind increases the total
of legal expenses, which the public are prone
to forget often involves a large amount
of outlay.
In common with other public bodies we
have made formal protest to the Government
against the increase in telephone charges, but
as you are aware the Government remained
adamant, and the public suffer, nevertheless
I record the effort we made as having been
done not only in our own interests but those
of our clients, the public.
The
Treasury
regulations
by which
Exchequer Bonds and National War Bonds
and War Loan Stock belonging to deceased
persons are accepted in payment of death
duties, has been largely availed of. These
Bonds the State must accept in payment of
the price of issue.
I need scarcely point out that I only touch
upon matters that may be of public interest,
and that your Council accomplishes much