90 / 144
had passed adverse comment. He had represented
the Society at the adjourned hearing and in
formed the Justice of the Council's views. The
Vice-President's report was adopted by
the
Council.
Unqualified Persons Preparing Agreements.
THE Secretary reported that he had received a
copy of a circular issued by a firm of Auctioneers'
and Estate Agents in Dublin offering to undertake
the work of preparing agreements and conditions
of sale at nominal rates. It was ordered that the
Secretary should write to the Auctioneers pointing
out the penalties which may be imposed upon
unqualified persons who undertake solicitors'
work, and warning them against acting in the
manner suggested by their circular.
Land Commission Delays.
THE President reported that he had attended
with the Secretary to interview the Secretary of
the Irish Land Commission on the subject of
delays which have recently occurred and that he
was hopeful that as a result of representations
which had been made there would be a con
siderable improvement in the position. He stated
that the Secretary of the Land Commission had
informed him that complaints accompanied by
full particulars directed to him personally will be
fully and confidentially investigated.
APPLICATIONS FOR COSTS IN DEBT
COLLECTING LETTERS.
THE Council has recently considered the practice
of including demands for costs in solicitors' letters
applying for payment of debts before the institu
tion of proceedings. The Council expressed the
opinion that the practice should, in so far as it
now exists, be discontinued. The opinion of
the Council is limited to applications for immediate
payment of liquidated debts. A contributed article
on the position of solicitors in this matter is
printed below.
LETTER BEFORE ACTION.
SOLICITORS will recall having seen the press reports
some years ago of adverse comments by the
Recorder of Belfast on solicitors' letters applying
for payment of debts due to clients demanding
payment by the debtors of a specified sum for
the costs of the letter.
The prominence which was given in the Press
to the Recorder's remarks attracted the attention
not only of members of the profession but of the
general public. In several instances solicitors who
had obtained payment on behalf of creditors of
small debts together with the costs of the letter of
application, before the institution of proceedings,
have since received demands from the erstwhile
debtors for a refund of the amount of the costs
on the grounds that they were not legally recover
able and should not have been demanded. It is
therefore of importance to the members of the
profession who are entrusted with the work of
debt collection to enquire
(a)
as to the propriety
in the interests of justice of writing the usual
warning letter before the institution of proceedings
and the consequences of instituting proceedings
without at least one such letter, and
(b)
the prop
riety and wisdom of the admittedly long standing
custom of issuing applications for payment of a
debt, accompanied by a request for payment of a
sum for costs, and an intimation that proceedings
will be instituted failing payment either of the
amount of the debt and costs or of the debt alone.
In regard to the first question it will generally
be conceded that a solicitor as an officer of the
Court has to consider not merely the interests of
his client and his personal interests but also the
interests of justice, and it has always been the
practice of the profession to give the debtor a final
opportunity of discharging his obligations or
compromising with his creditor before instituting
proceedings. In Rinder v. Deacon (11 Ir. Jur.
N.S. 414) Pigot, C. B., stated : "I hesitate about
giving costs in favour of the plaintiff's attorney,
for I think this motion indicates that it is the
practice prevailing too much at present that an
attorney instructed to collect the debts of an
English client makes the summons and plaint
the medium of his demand. The attorney's duty
to the community at large and to his client was
not to make the summons and plaint the first
means of collecting his clients' debts, but to apply
by letter in the first instance to the defendant."
Although there appears to be no absolute legal
obligation on a solicitor to write the usual pre
liminary
letter of warning before
instituting
proceedings, the rule of conduct laid down by
Pigot, C. B., in 1866, only indicated what was
then, and has continued to be,
the general
practice of the profession. The costs of such a
letter will tax as between party and party, and,
where the party and party costs are regulated by
scale, the scale usually includes provision for
such a letter. Even if solicitors had to write such
letters gratuitously in all cases, most would prefer
to do so rather than to institute proceedings
without warning.
The topic of the propriety of including applica
tions for costs in preliminary letters is not new,
and is the subject of old and conflicting judicial
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