102 / 328
in the drawing up of a will or is a beneficiary under
it. Suppose a doctor helped to draw up a will under
which he benefited and the testator died under
peculiar circumstances then the doctor could not
hold the inquest. The term ' is a beneficiary ' is very
narrow.
It would not apply, for instance, if a
solicitor drew up a will under which his wife, his
family, relatives or friends were to benefit. I do not
see why it should not be extended to cover the
complete range of full testamentary disposition.
If a coroner has assisted in the drawing up of a will,
no matter who benefits, he should not hold the
inquest on the body of the testator. The phrase is
far too narrow. If it were changed to ' a will under
which he benefits ' or ' which benefits him ' that
would be a different matter. Being a beneficiary
under a will is a very technical matter and I suggest
it would be better to say that if a coroner had
occasion to draw up the testamentary disposition of
the deceased he should not hold the inquest.
MR. HAUGHEY :
I have a certain amount of
sympathy with Deputy McGilligan's point of view
in this matter. This is a new provision and the
entire concept of subsection (2) is new to law. We
want to ensure that there will be no conflicts of
interest between the two capacities of the coroner
and this concept deals with the case where there is
a solicitor-coroner.
I think it desirable that the
coroner should, as far as possible, have no connec
tion whatever with a deceased or his affairs.
However, we must be practical about this and
realise that we cannot put too many impositions on
the coroner.
We can visualise the situation in a country town
where the solicitor-coroner has a large practice.
As we all know, there will be an accumulation of
wills in any solicitor's office which have been drawn
up over the years and left in the solicitor's safe.
We would be putting an undue obligation on a
solicitor-coroner if we compelled him on every
occasion when he was about to carry out an inquest
to go through the accumulated wills in his office
and ascertain that he had not drawn up the will of
the deceased.
However, I think the suggestion made by Deputy
McGilligan is a good one which would probably
meet both our points of view. I undertake to have
another look at the actual wording of the provision
and
see
if we might expand
the concept of
'
beneficiary' somewhat.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Section 35, as amended, agreed to."
FEES FOR LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
"125. Mr. M. P. Murphy asked the Minister for
Justice whether in view of the hardship caused to
members of the general public by the uncertain
nature of the cost of legal proceedings of any kind
he will investigate the possibility of the setting out
of a scale of charges to be adhered to by members
of the legal profession for normal legal transactions
and proceedings.
MR. HAUGHEY :
I do not accept that there is
such uncertainty in the matter of legal costs as to
cause hardship.
Costs in court proceedings are prescribed by the
rules made by the rules committees of the various
courts and, in general, refer to the costs which the
unsuccessful party may be ordered to pay to the
successful party. Except in the case of the district
court, where the prescribed costs may not be
exceeded, provision is made for allowing higher
costs in exceptional cases. Any costs payable on
a solicitor and client basis over and above the
prescribed costs can be agreed between the solicitor
and his client and in default of agreement may be
taxed by a Taxing Master.
Solicitors' costs in non-contentious business are
regulated by orders made under the Solicitors
Remuneration Act, 1881 and, in relation to Land
Registry business, by the Land Registration Rules.
Owing to the variety of circumstances affecting
even normal legal transactions and proceedings it
would be impossible to prepare standard scales.
MR. M. P. MURPHY :
The average person does
not know what his costs are going to be.
Surely
the time is at hand when some scale should be
publicised to enable the public to know to what they
are committed in law courts and land convey
ancing ?
MR. HAUGHEY :
The Deputy will appreciate that
there are several different matters involved. First
of all, the question deals entirely with the cost of
legal proceedings and the possibility of the setting
out of a scale of charges to be adhered to by members
of the legal profession. The Deputy will appreciate
that is only one aspect.
In so far as those charges
are concerned, they are very well regulated, either
by rules of court or otherwise. They are known or
should be known and can be made known to
prospective litigants.
There are of course other
factors which affect the cost of legal proceedings.
Those factors, I may say, are not mentioned by the
Deputy in his question but it is very difficult to make
known in advance what the cost of any patticular
legal proceedings will be because one of the factors
is the amount of time they will take. Having said
all that, I want to intorm the Deputy that the
Programme ot Law Reform in which my Department
is engaged, and as set out in the White Paper pub
lished recently, envisages the setting up of a com
mittee to investigate the procedure and practices in
94