58 / 336
Us
,ne a s
!hat con traded to be sold. Subject to the
j
la
Ua!
'imitations imposed by the Court, the purchaser
b . ' V
a
.
r
^ '
1 1 l o s
P
c c i f i c
performance, but this may
0
limited by undue delay on his part, or if the Court
^nsidcrs th at performance would involve great hard-
d
'P. The purchaser may theoretically be entitled -to
amages for the failure of the vendor to complete,
d
u t
. under the rule in Flurcau v. Thomhill the
^mages arc in general limited to the expenses actu-
^ >' incurred. The principle is that if a Vendor, who
not undertaken to provide a good title, provided
. acts in good faith and without breach of trust,
unable to make a title, the purchaser cannot
cover any damages for loss of his bargain.
The ^ second lecture, entitled "The Solicitors of
oday"
w a s
d
e
i i
v e r C (
i
b y
M r
G
e r a
j d Moloney,
1Clt
°r, Cork. This was a very wide-ranging talk,
j
d
among the subjects covered were:—
The changes that have occurred in solicitors'
offices for the last 20 years and the current use of
modern aids, such as dictating machines, electric
and automatic typewriters, mechanical acc * nting
machines and Telex. The pressures are also much
2
Sweater today!
As members of the Common Market, we will have
to deal constantly with foreign lawyers who have
a different concept of law. It may hence be pos-
s,
ble to plead a provision of the Treaty of Rome
as superseding domestic law. The important case
Van Zuylcn v. Hag, about the marking of a
similar trade mark by both plaintiff and defendant,
^ a s decided on 3 July, 1974 in the European
Gourt in Luxembourg; it only took eight
w
eeks for the reference to be determined by
the European Court, which shows the speed with
3 Jtoich the Court expects to proceed.
Gradually new forms of action are being intro-
duced such as damage to children affected by
thalidomide, and property rights in relation to
mines and oilfields. Don't think that, because
someone comes in with a claim on a basis that you
ne
ver heard of before, he is automatically without
4
a
remedy.
As solicitors we now have a right of audience in
a
'I Courts. Advocacy is a specialised subject, but
toose who practise in the Courts constantly must
not only speak well but think on their feet. Many
solicitors are in fact more able than barristers in
tois field. A good solicitor will not run to Counsel
0 r
advice on every conceivable
occasion.
?°licitors will normally find precedents for draft-
tog documents, but, even if they do not, good
solicitors should find the words clearly and un-
5. ^ h ' g u o u s ly to express their client's intention.
As regards costs, it is vital to explain to the client
j^torehand the likely maximum charge, and then
e
will be unlikely subsequently to complain of
jto overcharge. It is not only the question of how
touch is charged, but how satisfied the client is
th
í
h e w o r k d o n e
-
i s a l s o a d v i s a b
'
e tC) t e
"
j ?
e c
" e n t from the beginning what may go wrong.
you arc able ultimately to charge him less, he
*
r i I b
e delighted.
6. The main complaints of clients are: (1) An un-
• expectedly bad result; (2) Delay; (3) Expense. If
delay is due to the solicitor's own fault, he should
aámit it openly to the client, and try his best to
remedy it. If delay is due to laches in govern-
ment offices, the solicitor should warn the client
beforehand that this is likely to occur. Solicitors
should adopt some system whereby thev do not
forget about a case that is not current.
7. Sooner or later scale fees will be investigated on
behalf, of the public. Solicitors should activelv
, support the Law Society's Questionaire on Time
Costing; only 10% of the profession have replied
so far. It need hardly be stressed that the answers
will be confidential. Scale fees no longer apply in
England, and there are guidelines as to what
constitutes a fair and economic fee. It is obvious
that a substantial measure of civil legal aid will
have to be introduced. The system of time costing
will assist us to ascertain the approximate cost of
a particular job. Until civil legal aid is fully
available it is our duty to make our services
freely available to those who cannot afford it;
when civil legal aid is available, the present high
scale of conveyancing fees will be hard to justify.
Remedies will have to be found to improve the
present system of conveyancing on a building
estate with a similar single title, whereby each
purchaser is bound to investigate the title and pay
a statutory scale fee.
8. It is up to us to improve our efficiency and to
catch up on our arrears and to make sure that
all our work is up to date. If a solicitor spends
time in estimating in detail costs and the work in
progress, it will be well worth his while. An
efficient accounting and filing system is essential.
It seems best to keep the correspondence on a
brass tag in a manilla cover to be placed in a
hanging container in a cabinet together with an
envelope containing all the documents in the
case. It is also essential to have a loose-leaf Index
of all documents kept in the strong room alpha-
betically under the client's name. Account must
also be taken of the inevitable increasing over-
heads. It is unwise to give too much credit to
clients, as recovery may sometimes be difficult.
9. We should make ouselves acquainted with new-
fields of law such as EEC Law or Tax avoidance.
Mr. Martin Rafferty, of Belvedere Trust Ltd.
delivered the next lecture on "Profit Motive". Inter-
nationalism of business is becoming more powerful.
International Corporations want to cut back and
there is a gradual growth of international unions.
Capitalism is beginning to be exploited. There is a
growing influence of the media. Trading blocks, such
as EEC currencies, tend to be used beyond national
boundaries. In the U.K. and the U.S., the growth of
companies having as their primary aim the stripping
of assets, without regard to the body of workers
affected or to the shareholders was seen by John
Bentley in the middle and late '60s. This exploitation
(even though in a minority of companies) brought
business into disrepute.
55