The Gazette 1974

tor becoming involved in unnecessary personal expense

to medical witnesses with no hope of reimbursement,

and naturally such expense will be added to your other

expenses which must be incurred if the action is to come

to trial.

CONVEYANCING

A great deal can be said about this particular prac-

tice, but from the point of view of the client the most

important thing is the stamp duty, registration fees,

mortgage fees and a general appreciation of the total

financial position in connection with in all probability

the sale of the client's own house and the purchase of

a new house either on a new estate or one of the older

vintage, coupled with the arrangement of the necessary

finances from a lending institution to cover the appro-

priate margin to enable the transaction to be finalised.

There will also be the problem of providing the client

with the necessary bridging finance, to complete the

purchase of his new house, so that he can give possession

of his old one to the purchaser of his old property.

Sometimes there are existing mortgages to be discharged

on the old property and new mortgages to be created

on the new one involving complicated accountancy pro-

cedure which will render it necessary for the solicitor

acting to give undertakings to the financial institution

providing the bridging finance, and it is the giving of

these undertakings that extreme care must be exercised.

It is suggested that no undertaking whatsoever be given

by a solicitor until he has obtained from his client an

irrevocable retainer coupled with an irrevocable autho-

rity authorising the solicitor to give an undertaking to

the bank or other financial institution to lodge the pro-

ceeds of the sale of the client's house to the credit of

his particular account with the bank, and also to lodge

the proceeds of the mortgage advance on the new

house when same is made available by the particular

lending institution concerned.

An irrevocable retainer and an irrevocable authority

is necessary because it is competent for any client to

discharge the retainer of his solicitor after the solicitor

has given the necessary undertakings and in such cir-

cumstances the solicitor concerned has no authority to

withold the documents from the client's newly appointed

solicitor, on payment of his proper costs and charges.

He is not apparently entitled or in a position to revoke

the undertakings already given to the lending institu-

tions, who have in fact advanced the money or part

thereof leaving the solicitor in the very uncomfortable

position of having to honour his undertaking in cir-

cumstances where there is no hope of recoupment.

There is a case on record where the solicitor con-

cerned in such case was called upon and did in fact

honour the undertaking, thereby suffering the loss as

there was no source from which it was recoverable, the

particular client having gone out of the jurisdiction in

circumstances which rendered it impossible for the soli-

citor to pursue his remedies.

The general inference to be drawn in matters of this

kind is for solicitors to be extremely reluctant to give

undertakings except in circumstances where they are

absolutely sure of their client's integrity and financial

standing, and in such circumstances where the solicitor

cannot be removed from control of the finances until

such time as the undertaking is fully honoured and dis-

charged. .

There is one final point in conveyancing matters

and it is this : that a solicitor acting for a purchaser or

for a vendor should so far as the purchaser is concerned

collect all stamp duties, registration fees and costs and

mortgage fees prior to the completion of the purchase. *

Clients expect to pay the full amount and ascertain the

full liability at that stage and not five or six months

later. So far as vendors are concerned, they prefer to

pay all their expenses at the time of the completion of

the financial side of their transaction so that no further

accounts will be furnished several months later.

It is quite clear and well known that failure to

adhere to this procedure will result in the solicitor

neither receiving his own fees, but he will also find it

impossible' to recover the stamp duties and outlays. In

addition, the solicitor will have a dis-satisfied client

who will not consult him in future transactions, and

generally speaking it is bad business from the point of

view of the client as well as bad business from the point ,

of view of the solicitor.

FILING, ACCOUNTS AND

OFFICE ADMINISTRATION

Filing

(1) Every client is worthy of a file, and this file

should be opened immediately after the instructions

and attendance has been taken by the solicitor and a

registration number should be given for the file. Some

solicitors adopt the practice of numbering files on a

yearly basis, i.e. in 1973 you start with No. 1 file

and end with 700, the first file is called 1/1973 and

the other files are numbered consecutively up to the

31st December, 1973, and the same procedure applies

for 1974 and consecutively every year thereafter. It is

a good practice no matter how small the practice is to

have a register of these files opened in alphabetical

order and also have a duplicate register giving the

reference numbers in numerical order. These files can

then be put into filing cabinets alphabetically under

the name of the client which makes the file readilv

accessable at any time the file is required while it is a

current file.

When the transaction has been completed and

finalised it is usual in some systems to remove the file

from the current cabinet and put it away in some

registration department giving it a P / A number (i.e.

a Put Away number) and establishing a card index

for all these files which are completed and put away-

This system enables current files to be separated from

"dead" files or completed files and contributes towards

the efficiency of the establishment in eliminating dead

wood from the living trees.

(2) There is then of course the problem of dealing

with Title Deeds and Documents which are part and

parcel of the client's file and in most offices it is the

practice to give the bundle of Title Deeds the same

reference number as the current file. The various

bundles of Deeds and Documents are identifiable by

reference to a manilla cover into which Deeds and

Documents are placed identifying the Documents

with the client's file. These folders and documents can

then be placed in a special cabinet and not placed in

the filing cabinet because their bulk would render the

depositing of the files in a filing cabinet useless, cum-

bersome and undesirable. It is vitally important that

every bundle of Deeds must have a folder on top

identifying them and reliance must not be placed under

any circumstances of hoping that the staff will place the

client's Deed on the top of the bundle as the final and

only means of identification at any given time. Such a

practice is fraught with the gravest danger and great

frustrations will be suffered in trying to identify deeds