The Gazette 1946-49

existing state of the law, there arc many matters

affecting the interests of the profession in respect

of which the Council at the present time can only

make recommendations to the profession. Many

of these matters may, when the Solicitors' Bill

becomes law, be the subject of statutory regulations.

The Council recently recommended to the profession

that the practice of making a purchaser of property,

whether by private treaty or by public auction,

liable for an approval fee should be discontinued.

The Council have also from time to time published

recommendations with regard to such matters as

search fees and similar matters. The Council look

to the Bar Associations to adopt these recommenda

tions, which are published from time to time in the

Society's GAZETTE, and which are in the interests

of the profession as a whole.

The following is a list of the Bar Associations at

present in existence so far as is known to the Society :

Southern Law Association, Limerick Bar Associa

tion, Galway Bar Association, Monaghan Bar

Association, Cork West Bar Association, Mayo

Bar Association, County Louth Bar Association,

Carlow Bar Association, Sligo Bar Association,

Wexford Bar Association, Meath Bar Association,

Tipperary Bar Association, Kerry Law Society,

Kildare Bar Association, Drogheda Solicitors,

Association, Wicklow Bar Association, North Cork

Law Association, Dublin Solicitors' Bar Associa

tion, Waterford Law Society, Cavan Solicitors'

Association.

Some of

these associations

are

active

and well-organised, others

are

inactive

or dormant.

In the following counties

there

are

apparently no

Bar Associations

all:

Donegal, Leitrim, Roscommon, Longford, West-

meath, part of Offaly, Leix, Kilkenny and Clare.

I intend to suggest to the Council that a strong

effort should be made, by propaganda and other

methods, to encourage the formation of Bar Associa

tions where none exist, and to revitalise the Bar

Associations

in areas where

they have become

dormant. There are several well-organised and

healthy Bar Associations whose rules would repay

careful study, and which might be adopted as the

basis of rules in other areas.

It might be possible

to send representatives from the Council to certain

provincial centres with a view to starting Bar

Associations where none exist.

Solicitors' Bill

THE draft Solicitors' Bill was submitted to the

Government in April, 1943, and since that date

many conferences have been held between the

Department of Justice and representatives of the

Society on various matters arising out of the Bill.

The Council of the Society gave long and careful

consideration to a suggestion that the Bill should

provide for a fund to compensate clients for losses

suffered as the result of solicitors' defalcations. At

a special general meeting of the Society held on

2nd October, a scheme was submitted to

the

members of the Society, and a resolution was

passed authorising the Council to ask the Minister

for Justice to include in the Bill a section providing

for the establishment of a Compensation Fund.

A draft scheme has now been settled with the

assistance of Counsel. The Minister has been

asked to include in the Bill the necessary section

to set up the Compensation Fund, and a draft of

the proposed section will be submitted to him as

soon as possible. The total number of defalcations

by solicitors both as to number and amount of

money involved

insignificant compared with

the total number of practising solicitors and volume

of money which passes through their hands year

after year, and which is dealt with in a perfectly

competent and trustworthy manner. The number

of practising solicitors in the country at the present

time is approximately 1,400, and the number has

never been less than 1,000 at any time since 1922.

The number of cases of defalcation by solicitors

which has come before

the Society since 1922

averages less than one-fifth of one per cent, of the

number of solicitors in practice. For the year

1944-1945 the returns of the Revenue Commis

sioners showed that the value of land and houses

sold amounted to almost eleven million pounds. The

greater part of this money passed through the hands

of solicitors. When I tell ypu that during that year

the total amount of money misappropriated by

members of the profession in cases which came

before the Statutory Committee was £20, you will

realise how high is the credit of the average member

of the profession.

There are, however, isolated

cases of the black sheep, which occur in every

profession and it is to deal with the hardship arising

as the result of cases that the Council propose to

establish the Compensation Fund.

Solicitors'

Annual Licence Duty

I have to inform you that the Council have

presented a memorandum to the Department of

Finance and to the Chairman of the Revenue Com

missioners asking that the annual certificate duty

payable by each solicitor should be abolished. The

duty is at present £9 in the case of a Dublin solicitor

and £6 in the case of a solicitor practising outside

Dublin, with a remission of one-half of the duty

in the case of a solicitor admitted less than three

years. This special tax on solicitors was originally

a war tax introduced by Pitt to meet the expenses

incurred by Great Britain consequent on

the

American War of Independence. The circumstances

which led to its adoption were of an almost acci-