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public,
and to prevent inroads on the fund. The
members of the solicitors' profession are under a
statutory obligation to put up the money for the
establishment and the maintenance of the fund. The
profession
in
effect is insuring clients
against
defalcations by a minority of dishonest practitioners.
It is unreasonable to the great body of reputable
practitioners to expect them to insure clients and at
the same time to deprive them of the powers which
are necessary to prevent or minimise losses.
Nevertheless the Council, having considered the
position with regard to the losses by clients at the
present time, decided that all claims in respect of
which losses had been proved down to the joth
April, 1958 should be paid in full and accordingly
cheques have been issued or passed for sums amount
ing to £10,699.
Other claims are still being investigated and this
will take some time. The investigation covers all
claims arising since the 5th January, 1955 down to the
28th October, 1958, and during that time claims have
been made against thirteen Solicitors, an average of
three per year.
Unfortunately the ability of the Council to prevent
loss has been dangerously weakened as a result of the
decision of the Supreme Court declaring the powers
of the Disciplinary Committee to be unconstitutional.
As I have said previously there has been no effective
disciplinary jurisdiction for over two years and it is
absolutely essential that the Society should have
power to prevent defalcations and not only to take
disciplinary action after the defalcations have oc
curred.
It is hoped that the Compensation Fund will be an
effective indemnity to the public in any case where a
Solicitor misappropriates his client's money and the
Council must be given proper powers to deal with
the matter.
Pensions and Retirement 'Benefits
As I told you last May the Council have been ac
tively concerned with the question of retirement
benefits for the profession. Since then the services of
a firm of experts have been engaged to draw up and
submit a draft scheme for pensions annuities. The
suggestion is that members will be entitled to con
tribute annually to this pension annuity scheme in
such amounts as they think fit or can afford and the
pensions payable to each contributor at the end of the
contributory period, at probably 65 or 70 years of
age, will be in proportion to the amount contributed
by him to the scheme during the contributory period.
The advantage of this flexibility is that the member is
not tied to a fixed premium and he can provide for
his pension in a greater or smaller contribution ac
cording to his earnings. He may desire to contribute
a large sum in one year and nothing at all during the
next. And it will be on the sum total of what he has
contributed during the contributory period that his
pension will be calculated. Furthermore contribu
tions may be deducted from earnings for tax purposes
and it is probable, although not certain, that the pen
sions will be taxable in the hands of the recipient at a
lower rate when received. The Council have not yet
received the draft Scheme but it is the idea that if and
when it is set up the Society will act as Trustee to the
Scheme to be established for the benefit of the mem
bers and the members will send their contributions
to the Society for investment with the Company con
cerned.
Professional policy and development
The Council has also decided to set up a Committee
to consider the position of the profession and its
members generally not only with reference to the
relation of the profession with the public but also in
connection with the internal affairs of the profession
itself. The Council feels that there should be a settled
policy with regard to the future rather than that
matters should be dealt with on a day to day basis.
Times are changing fast and it is no longer sufficient
to deal with matters as they arrive. It seems to me
that as far as possible they should be anticipated well
in advance and the profession should be given some
guidance as to how it should adapt itself to situations
as they may occur. The proposed Committee will
have to study and report on every facet of our pro
fession and consider it in detail. It will, I think, have
to concern itself with many things. If such a Com
mittee had been in existence in the early i93o's I be
lieve it may have been able possibly to do untold
good. For instance, to take only one example, since
the year 1926 apprentices were coming into the pro
fession in such considerable numbers that the result
is now that the profession's vastly over-crowded and
has increased by one-third since 1926, and a Com
mittee of the kind now proposed might have then
visualised this difficulty and laid down a policy to
deal with it.
Land Commission Costs
During the year a deputation from the Council at
tended at the Land Commission for the purpose of
explaining difficulties experienced by the profession
in regard to procedure and solicitors' costs in Land
Commission matters. The position is that the greater
part of solicitors' costs in Land Commission matters
are item costs regulated by the Schedule of Fees ap
pended to the provisional Rules of 1926 and these
costs were increased in 1947 by the addition of 25%
to the item charges. They are so completely out of
line with present day financial and economic condi
tions that it does not pay any solicitor now to do any
business in the Land Commission. I do not propose
i
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