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existing state of the law, there arc many matters
affecting the interests of the profession in respect
of which the Council at the present time can only
make recommendations to the profession. Many
of these matters may, when the Solicitors' Bill
becomes law, be the subject of statutory regulations.
The Council recently recommended to the profession
that the practice of making a purchaser of property,
whether by private treaty or by public auction,
liable for an approval fee should be discontinued.
The Council have also from time to time published
recommendations with regard to such matters as
search fees and similar matters. The Council look
to the Bar Associations to adopt these recommenda
tions, which are published from time to time in the
Society's GAZETTE, and which are in the interests
of the profession as a whole.
The following is a list of the Bar Associations at
present in existence so far as is known to the Society :
Southern Law Association, Limerick Bar Associa
tion, Galway Bar Association, Monaghan Bar
Association, Cork West Bar Association, Mayo
Bar Association, County Louth Bar Association,
Carlow Bar Association, Sligo Bar Association,
Wexford Bar Association, Meath Bar Association,
Tipperary Bar Association, Kerry Law Society,
Kildare Bar Association, Drogheda Solicitors,
Association, Wicklow Bar Association, North Cork
Law Association, Dublin Solicitors' Bar Associa
tion, Waterford Law Society, Cavan Solicitors'
Association.
Some of
these associations
are
active
and well-organised, others
are
inactive
or dormant.
In the following counties
there
are
apparently no
Bar Associations
at
all:
Donegal, Leitrim, Roscommon, Longford, West-
meath, part of Offaly, Leix, Kilkenny and Clare.
I intend to suggest to the Council that a strong
effort should be made, by propaganda and other
methods, to encourage the formation of Bar Associa
tions where none exist, and to revitalise the Bar
Associations
in areas where
they have become
dormant. There are several well-organised and
healthy Bar Associations whose rules would repay
careful study, and which might be adopted as the
basis of rules in other areas.
It might be possible
to send representatives from the Council to certain
provincial centres with a view to starting Bar
Associations where none exist.
Solicitors' Bill
THE draft Solicitors' Bill was submitted to the
Government in April, 1943, and since that date
many conferences have been held between the
Department of Justice and representatives of the
Society on various matters arising out of the Bill.
The Council of the Society gave long and careful
consideration to a suggestion that the Bill should
provide for a fund to compensate clients for losses
suffered as the result of solicitors' defalcations. At
a special general meeting of the Society held on
2nd October, a scheme was submitted to
the
members of the Society, and a resolution was
passed authorising the Council to ask the Minister
for Justice to include in the Bill a section providing
for the establishment of a Compensation Fund.
A draft scheme has now been settled with the
assistance of Counsel. The Minister has been
asked to include in the Bill the necessary section
to set up the Compensation Fund, and a draft of
the proposed section will be submitted to him as
soon as possible. The total number of defalcations
by solicitors both as to number and amount of
money involved
is
insignificant compared with
the total number of practising solicitors and volume
of money which passes through their hands year
after year, and which is dealt with in a perfectly
competent and trustworthy manner. The number
of practising solicitors in the country at the present
time is approximately 1,400, and the number has
never been less than 1,000 at any time since 1922.
The number of cases of defalcation by solicitors
which has come before
the Society since 1922
averages less than one-fifth of one per cent, of the
number of solicitors in practice. For the year
1944-1945 the returns of the Revenue Commis
sioners showed that the value of land and houses
sold amounted to almost eleven million pounds. The
greater part of this money passed through the hands
of solicitors. When I tell ypu that during that year
the total amount of money misappropriated by
members of the profession in cases which came
before the Statutory Committee was £20, you will
realise how high is the credit of the average member
of the profession.
There are, however, isolated
cases of the black sheep, which occur in every
profession and it is to deal with the hardship arising
as the result of cases that the Council propose to
establish the Compensation Fund.
Solicitors'
Annual Licence Duty
I have to inform you that the Council have
presented a memorandum to the Department of
Finance and to the Chairman of the Revenue Com
missioners asking that the annual certificate duty
payable by each solicitor should be abolished. The
duty is at present £9 in the case of a Dublin solicitor
and £6 in the case of a solicitor practising outside
Dublin, with a remission of one-half of the duty
in the case of a solicitor admitted less than three
years. This special tax on solicitors was originally
a war tax introduced by Pitt to meet the expenses
incurred by Great Britain consequent on
the
American War of Independence. The circumstances
which led to its adoption were of an almost acci-
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