The Gazette 1974

mission to a profession is invariably dependent on a

minimum standard of general education. This must be

followed by a prescribed period of professional educa-

tion and training laid down either by Statute or by the

rules of the professional body to which the Student

submits. In order to conform, a university degree is in

many cases a necessary condition of admission to the

profession. Admission also depends on passing pre-

scribed examinations and tests. Members admitted to

the profession are identifiable from a roll or register.

Lastly, in all professions worthy of the name, there are

recognised standards of conduct and ethics designed to

ensure that professional service will be maintained at a

proper recognised standard, and that the interests of

the client will take precedence over the material in-

terests of the practitioner. It is a recognised mark of a

profession that where there is any likelihood of a con-

flict of interest between the practitioner and the client,

the professional relationship must be terminated.

Criticism of the Profes:ion

If my preceding remarks seem to some of you to

resemble the annual statement made in addressing

students about to enter our profession, rather than a

body of mature practitioners to whom these principles

re already familiar, it is not without reason. Anyone

h o reads the daily press and periodicals and indeed

the work of more serious authors must be aware of the

growing attitude of criticism towards all professions

including our own. In one sense it is natural that pro-

fessional men should not be popular or at least that

they should be expected to justify their existence as a

Privileged elite. George Bernard Shaw was only the

successor of Dickens and other popular writers when

he described the professions as a conspiracy against the

Public. Shaw's particular "bete noire" was the medical

profession. Possibly the fact that he was a vegetarian

was symptomatic of this attitude!

This attitude of critical scrutiny of professional

status and practice has been shown in this country by

the Restrictive Practices Act 1972 which for the first

time brought professional services within the scope of

the Fair Trades Commission and subject to the same

examination as the practices of trade and industry in

the field of monopoly and what are regarded as restric-

tive practices. We must be prepared to meet this chal-

tenge whenever it comes. Representatives of the Council

were received by the Minister and officials of the De-

partment of Industry and Commerce when the legisla-

tion was being drafted. It was clearly stated for the

yepartment that the fact that a professional practice

is restrictive does not necessarily mean that it is unfair.

hope to show that the long standing practices of

o u

r profession, some sanctioned by statute or statutory

Sulation, others by long-standing usage and opinions

°f the Council, and often confirmed by Judicial

cisions of the Courts, are necessary to preserve pro-

essional standards and the interests of our clients.

Jicitors 'Fees Central Costs Committee

I he Prices (Amendment) Act 1972 introduces an

entirely new concept into the existing systems of regulat-

Solicitors' fees. As far as I know our profession

ares with taxi-cab drivers the distinction of being the

oiy occupations whose charges are not self-controlled,

e a r e

in the rather invidious position of having our

cs controlled by five or six different committees acting

uependently without any communication or means of

g a t i ng the economics of professional practice as a

°le. Accountants, Auctioneers, Medical practitioners,

nr.me

only a few vocations, fix their own fees to

mset the exigencies of the moment. On top of this

complex system of fixing Solicitors' fees, the Govern-

ment in the latest Prices Act has provided that no

Order made by any of the committees which I have

referred to shall be effective, if it proposes to increase

fees, unless sanctioned by the Minister for Industry

and Commerce. His functions may in turn be dele-

gated to any other Minister—probably, in the case of

our profession, to the Minister for Justice.

The Council have had discussions with the Minister

for Justice and his officials about the methods of fixing

Solicitors' fees as far back as 1969 when their repre-

sentatives were then received by Mr. O'Morain, the

last predecessor but one of the present Ministers. The

Society's representatives pointed out the time-wasting

and complex systems of dealing with applications for

increases under the present system. No fair-minded

person can maintain that in a climate of continuing

inflation of prices—now in the region of 10% per

annum—Solicitors' charges should be subject to a stand-

still order while all other costs and fees, including the

overhead expenses of running offices, of which salaries

and wages are a major factor, rise with the annual

wage rounds or national wage agreements. Other

professions, Medicine, Accountancy, Consulting En-

gineers, Motor Asse~sors, Surveyors, and others with

whom our profession is in constant contact and on

which it depends for consultancy and co-operation

adjust their fees to meet the circumstances of the day.

It is the experience of the Council that Solicitors'

charges for Court business and non-contentious busi-

ness under Schedule 2 are dealt with only after arduous

preparations, prolonged consideration and, where

Ministerial consent is necessary, long delay. The Coun-

cil have not made any application for an increase in the

mortgages since the present scales were fixed in 1947

taking this view that where a charge is calculated as a

commission on the value of the property passing the

increase in the value of the property provides an auto-

matic increase in the fees received. However, in the

case of Solicitors' fees this is qualified by the over-riding

consideration that the commission scale, unlike that of

many other professions and occupations is regressive,

falling steeply to a maximum of 19% and as low as

0.35p per £100 of value on the part of the considera-

tion increasing more than £10,000. Other professions I

need not go into detail, charge a flat commission scale

which does not decline with the value of the property.

As property values increase and with the increase, the

responsibility and risk of the Solicitor, the average rate

of his remuneration falls. One should also have regard

to the fact that the continual changes in our legal

system, which is apparent from the volume of legisla-

tion with which the profession has to deal, impose

great demands on Solicitors' time, and with it the work

involved in attending to clients' affairs and the ex-

penses of running a Solicitor's practice.

The Council therefore, proposed to the then Minister

for Justice, Mr. O'Morain that a Central Costs Com-

mittee should be set up which would include members

of the Judiciary, representatives of the profession, and

experts such as Chartered Accountants which would be

empowered to renew Solicitors' fees and expenses at

frequent intervals having regard to the current index

of prices and other relevant factors.

It was suggested that such a high-powered com-

mittee should have executive and not merely advisory

powers and the Society for the first time in history of