130 / 364
ation fee as well as the commission scale fee. On
report of a committee who had taken, counsel's
advice the committee stated that the negotiation fee,
where payable, is payable by the lessor, and cannot
be charged against the lessee as part of the lessor's
costs.
Retainer in criminal matter
The Council adopted a report from a committee
which had considered whether a solicitor who
undertakes to appear for a defendant on the pre
liminary
investigation of an
indictable offence
impliedly accepts a retainer which obliges him to act
until the end of the trial if the client is returned for
trial. The committee took the view that a solicitor
who accepts a retainer to appear on the preliminary
investigation does not accept an entire retainer to
continue until the end of the trial on indictment and
that the retainer extends to the preliminary investig
ation only. He is entitled to decline the retainer for
the trial unless he is put in funds or for any other
valid reason.
NUMBER OF APPRENTICES
The Court of Examiners, in view of the consider
able number of applications made to them recently
by members, wish to draw the attention of solicitors
to the provisions of Section 36 of the Solicitors Act,
1954, which reads as follows :—
"(i) A solicitor shall not have more than one
apprentice at the same time.
(2) Notwithstanding sub-section (i) of this Section
a solicitor may have two apprentices at the
same time under a written consent of the
Society, but the Society shall not grant any
such consent except in special circumstances.
Such consent shall not be withheld where the
two apprentices are
the children of the
solicitor or where the second apprentice is
the child of the solicitor and the first appren
tice has been apprenticed with the solicitor
for not less than two years."
EXCHANGE OF CONTRACTS
The opinion of the Council on the matter is
expressed at page 249 of the Society's Handbook,
which reads as follows :—
"The Council advised members that contracts for
sale of property should be engrossed in duplicate
26
and that a copy executed by the vendor should be
exchanged for a copy executed by the purchaser, the
latter being accompanied by a cheque for the deposit
in favour of the vendor's solicitor, where appropriate
accordingly to the terms of the contract."
The Council attaches great importance to this
recommendation and urges all members of the
profession to adopt it.
It is pointed out that a
solicitor who pays the deposit on a contract without
obtaining in exchange a copy of the contract signed
by the vendor may be held personally responsible if
for any reason the vendor does not sign the contract.
If the amount of the deposit paid over by the
purchaser's solicitor is not recoverable the purchaser
will be a simple not a secured creditor.
INTERVIEWING OPPONENT'S
WITNESS
The Society has been informed that in the course
of recent proceedings in the Central Criminal Court
counsel for the State informed the Judge that he
wished to raise a matter concerning the conduct of
the solicitor for the accused who had been seen on
a number of occasions speaking to two of the
principal witnesses for the prosecution.
Counsel
stated that no notice of any kind had been given
to the State about these interviews and no request
had been made to the State authorities for the
interviews and that he thought that the conduct of
the solicitor was improper. Counsel for the accused
then informed the Judge that he had specifically
requested the solicitor to enquire from one of these
witnesses about a certain matter which was of
importance to the accused and that he made no
apology for it as State witnesses were not sacrosanct.
The Judge having asked the solicitor for the accused
for information about the matter stated that in his
view nothing improper had occurred.
Having regard to the importance of this matter
the following extracts from the Society's GAZETTE
are reprinted :
"The Times,
of 15th July last, published an extract
from the remarks of Lewis, J. in the course of a
criminal prosecution before him during which it
transpired that a woman, who had been summoned
as a witness by the prosecution, went at the request
of the solicitor for the accused, to his office, and was
taken through her statement by his clerk. The judge
was reported as having said that for a solicitor, or for
his clerk, when instructed by a prisoner, to interview
a witness for the prosecution was most reprehensible,
and he proposed to obtain a transcript of the evidence
and send it to the Law Society. His Lordship took a
serious view of the girl's evidence if true, and if it