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remaining internal mechanical work. In the Cir
cuit Court when filing a defence with lodgment
it is merely necessary to send the defence by
post with a cheque to the County Registrar.
There
is no
reason why
the same procedure
should not be adopted in the High Court. In
the normal case where an order
is made for
payment out of Court there is at least a month's
delay before the draft is issued. The solicitor or
his assistant calls on numerous occasions to take
up the draft before it is ready. The absence of
modern facilities for communication is a defect
which pervades the entire machiner of the High
Court Offices.
The matter goes further than the offices under
the control of the Deaprtment of Justice. For
some years the Society have made continual rep
resentations about serious delays
in
the Estate
Duty Office and the Valuation Office with which
solicitors are in continual communication on be
half of their clients. The authorities admit that
there is serious delays in these Departments due
again to shortage of staff, sick leave and other
reasons. The public should know that the speed
with which solicitors can conduct their client's
business depends to a very large extent upon co
operation from Government Departments. Under
staffing in these Departments leads to delay, un
necessary correspondence and additional expense.
A solicitor has to keep his file open for months
longer than is necessary and efficient office or
ganisation is disrupted. The responsibility for de
lay does not rest on the under-staffed offices or on
the profession who
suffer equally with
their
clients from under-staffing or outdated methods
in Government Departments. In July 1960 the
Society submitted to the Departments of Justice
and Finance a memorandum on organisation and
methods in solicitors' and government offices with
a view to speeding up business by the introduction
of up to date business methods
in
the public
offices with which the solicitors have to deal. The
greatest single obstacle to efficiency in the con
duct of legal business is the time spent in at
tendance and waiting as distinct from being gain
fully occupied at various public offices and de
partments in different parts of the city. These
wasteful and
time consuming methods absorb
an altogether disproportionate amount of the time
of solicitors and their staffs and the Council in
their memorandum suggested among other things
that much of
the business now transacted by
personal attendance at various Court offices could
be done by telephonic communication and by
correspondence. There is no reason by Govern-
82
ment Departments and particularly
the Court
Offices should be less progressive than business
management in the introduction and provision of
telephones, dictaphones, correspondence clerks and
other aids to speed and efficiency. No reply beyond
an acknowledgment was received by the Society
to their memorandum.
THE LAND COMMISSION
The following is the text of a letter addressed by the
Society to the Secretary of the Department of Lands,
on 7th December, 1965, which the Society consider will
be of interest to members: —
DEAR MR. O'BRIEN,
I
refer to our meeting when you received Mr.
Shaw and myself to make representations on various
difficulties experienced in Land Commission matters:
1.
Payment of the purchase price of lands in de
preciated land bonds.
Solicitors
throughout
the country are
finding great
difficulty in explaining to their clients whose lands are
compulsorily acquired
the
justification,
if any
can
be said to exist, for the payment of the price in land
bonds standing below par. This has become very serious
during the past twelve months. The price of 6 per cent
land bonds during the year 1965 has varied between
88 and 98 and now stands near the lower figure. The
Land Commission are obliged by statute to pay the
owners
for
the market value of
lands compulsorily
acquired. In effect at the present time the Land Com
mission are paying market value less 12 per cent. There
is a moral duty on the State when acquiring lands to
compensate owners fairly. This is not being done and
the
time
lag between
the
issue of new
land bonds
carrying interest at the same rate as other Government
securities has resulted in effect in confiscation of the
purchase price of an appreciable number of owners.
There appears
to be no
reason why Government
securities issued to persons whose lands are compulsorily
acquired should be any less advantageous both in regard
to
the
rate of
interest and
the
terms of
issue
as
Government loans
issued for public subscription from
time to time. The effect of the terms attached to the
issue of land bonds
is
that they have become
to a
large extent unsaleable. Instances were quoted at our
meeting of owners whose
lands have been acquired
and who cannot realise the purchase price through the
sale of the land bonds on the stock exchange. This is
common knowledge among stockbrokers in Dublin. It
is the submission of the Society that the Department of
Finance and
the Department of Lands should
take
whatever steps are necessary to ensure that land bonds
issued
to owners on compulsory acquisition will be
readily saleable on the stock exchange and will maintain
par value. Remedies suggested are
(1) payment of a
cash bonus
to existing holders of land bonds which
have depreciated in market value;
(2)
the immediate
issue of a new series of bonds at not less than 6J per
cent rate of interest, on favourable conditions as
to
redemption (otherwise than by drawings) which would
make them readily saleable; (3) granting the privilege
of availablity for tender in discharge of death duties
and income tax to all existing land bond issues.
It is a bad thing that Government securities should
be difficult to realise or realisable only at depreciated