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sion and will be enacted sometime in Autumn 1975.
This legislation provides for the establishment of a
compensation fund, greatly widens the powers of the
Society, consolidates existing law relating to Solicitors
and, broadly speaking, brings such law into line with
that pertaining to Solicitors in England and Wales.
5. Professional Indemnity Insurance
The Solicitors' (N.I.) Order 1975, referred to at 4
above, incorporates powers for the Society to intro-
duce a compulsory scheme of Professional Indemnity
Insurance. The possibilities of the compulsory scheme
proposed by the Law Society (in regard to Solicitors
in England and Wales) being extended to cover N.
Ireland Solicitors are currently being investigated.
6. Licensing of Solicitors — Consumer Credit
Act 1974
This Society is equally concerned with !the matters
set out in the memorandum of the Secretary of the
Law
Society
of
Scotland.
It
was
originally
taken for granted that the Society would apply for
Group Licences under the Consumer Credit Adt but
having regard to the present altitude of the Director
General of Fair Trading and the comparatively small
number of Solicitors in N. Ireland consideration is
now being given to the merits of each Solicitor being
required to take out his own individual licences.
7. Legal Aid
The Society has decided to sponsor a Rota Scheme
whereby Solicitors will, on a roita basis, attend at Cit-
izens Advice Bureaux and other approved rdvice
centres.
In addition the Society has decided to prepare and
publish a Referal List covering all Solicitors in the
province and which will indicate the types of case
which they are prepared to accept and undertake on
reference. This list will be made available for referal
to Citizens Advice Bureaux and other approved law
centres, Public Welfare Officers, appropriate volun-
tary organisations and public offices.
It is anticipated that Legal Assistance (in the form
of the Green Form or £25 Scheme presently operated
both in Scotland and in England and Wales) will be
available in N. Ireland by the end of this year.
For some time it has been claimed in certain quar-
ters that there is, particularly in the city of Belfast,
an unmet need for legal services which are not being
provided by the Private Practitioners. It is currently
envisaged that in the near future a Law Centre will
be established on a temporary experimental basis with
Government funds and approval of the Society. The
Centre will employ one or two full time Solicitors, a
full time Social Worker and ancillary staff. The Centre
will be under the management of an independent
management committee. The Solicitor or Solicitors at-
tached to the Centre will operate as "resource Solicitors"
and will be authorised to seek out sections of the pop-
ulation who have rights of which they are ignorant and
to give advice in regard to the enforcement of such
rights. The said Solicitors will also be authorised to
undertake, through the Statutory Legal Aid Scheme,
the conduct of proceedings which Private Practitioners
are not prepared to undertake. The essential basis of
the approval given by the Society to this project is
that the service to be provided by the Centre will be
complementary to and not competitive with private
practice.
It is also envisaged that Government funds will be
made available for the employment by the Society of
a Liaison Officer who will maintain liaison with ap-
propriate voluntary organisations and public welfare
bodies, assist with the education of Councillors and
other Social Workers, supervise the operation of the
Rota Scheme and the Referal List referred to above
and seek out the localities and types of work where
the service provided by Private Practitioners is inad-
equate and to explore methods of remedying such in-
adequacies, if any.
8. Annual Subscriptions
The Annual Membership Subscription payable by
each of our members for the current year is £12.50. In
addition each practising Solicitor pays a fee for his
Annual Practising Certificate of £50.
In future those taking out Practising Certificates will
have to pay, in addition, an annual contribution or
levy to the Compensation Fund.
National Prices Commission Enquiry
The N.P.C. has appointed Professor Dennis Lees,
Department of Industrial Economics, The University of
Nottingham to review solicitors' remuneration. His
terms of reference are as follows :
(1) to review the total income of solicitors and in-
creases in their total expenses since 1970 and, if
practicable, since 1965;
(2) to identify the main classes of business and ex-
pense and to trace their behaviour in recent years;
(3) to determine to what extent there is "cross-subsidis-
ation" of one class of business by another;
(4) to consider "delays" in the legal system and parti-
cularly those associated with (a) Court Organisa-
tion and practice and (b) the Taxation of Costs;
(5) to comment on the scope for increased efficiency
among solicitors, for example :
(a) Amalgamations of Firms;
(b) the Introduction of Time Costing in preference
to scale fees;
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