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Correspondence
The Editor of the Gazette.
Re Leave of Absence of Apprentices for Study
Dear Mr. Gavan Duffy,
The Court of Examiners has recently received
representations from the Apprentices to the effect that
some Masters were reluctant to allow Apprentices
sufficient leave of absence from the office to enable
them to study for the Society's examinations. While
the Court of Examiners is surprised that this situation
should arise and is confident that the criticisms apply
to a very small number of Masters it has asked me
to write to you so that the attention of Masters may
be drawn to the matter.
The relationship of Master and Apprentice is a
bilateral one and while the Apprentice is obliged to
serve his Master faithfully and diligently so equally
is the Master obliged to do his best to ensure that the
Apprentice has a resonable opportunity of learning
the practice of the law and passing the Society's
examinations. The standards of these examinations
are maintained at a high level and the Court of
Examiners is satisfied that an Apprentice requires a
reasonable period of whole time study in preparation
for these examinations in order to be sure of passing
them. The Court of Examiners has no wish to have
to prescribe minimum periods of leave of absence
from the office in such cases and feels that once the
matter has been brought to the attention of Masters
in this way that reasonable leave of absence will be
given to Apprentices to study for the Society's
examinations and also for such other examinations as
are required of an Apprentice.
Yours sincerely,
J. F. Buckley.
Accountant's Office,
The High Court,
Dublin.
19th December 1974.
James J. Ivers, Esq.,
Director General,
Dear Mr. Ivers,
I am in receipt of your letter of the 17th inst.,
regarding the issue of payments from this office and
the closure of my books for the annual balance.
The position regarding payments is that, since my
appointment as Accountant in June 1973, schedules
to Court Order directing payments and requests for
payments authorised by Rules of Court are put in
hand in this office either on the day they are received
or on the following day. When the cash is to credit
payment is to be made out of the proceeds of sale
and when the request is in order, the payment draft is
signed by me within two or three days of the receipt
of schedule or request and frequently earlier. When
of stock, of encashment of bonds or of withdrawal
from deposit the draft is signed by me on the day on
which I am notified by the Bank that the cash has
come to credit. This has been the routine procedure
during the past year and a half; and I have received
no complaint during that time from any Solicitor
regarding a payment delayed in this Office.
If you are aware of any specific instance I should be
obliged if you would let me know. I would be only
too glad to investigate the matter immediately to
ensure that the system in operation in this office does
not fail in any particular case.
Regarding the closure of my books at the end of
the Long Vacation for the purpose of an annual
balance, the practice is that a date is fixed in the third
week in August by which date schedules to Court
Orders made up to the end of Term and requests for
payments under the Rules are required to be lodged in
this office. All such schedules, requests, etc., received
are dealt with immediately. The effect of this arrange-
ment is to expedite payments and to provide a period
of three or four weeks during which ledger trans-
actions are reduced in number as much as possible and
the accounts can be balanced as of the 30th September.
This balance is essential to the safe and accurate
keeping of the accounts; and a period of three to
four weeks is the minimum required for the work.
I have some 6,700 accounts in my books. In some
5,800 of these there are holdings of stock as well as
cash and there are several transactions in all these
accounts every year. The annual balance entails
ascertaining the stock and cash balance in every
account, extracting these balances and proving the
totals against the control figures. The end of the Long
Vacation, when all Court Orders have been dealt with
in so far as they refer to funds in Court, provides the
time necessary and the conditions suitable for this
work which could not be done with the same facility
at any other time of the year.
This office is, of course, open to other business
during the whole of the Long Vacation. All lodgments
and deposits are accepted and brought to credit.
Privities and certificates are issued and correspondence
is dealt with. The public office is open to deal with
enquiries and to issue drafts which have already gone
through the ledgers. During the months of August and
September this year 639 payments amounting to
£435,406-28 were issued by me.
The only case where a delay in payment can occur
is when the necessary schedule or request is not lodged
by the end of third week in August. The number of
such cases must be very small considering the large
numbers of schedules and requests received by me in
August.
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