The Gazette 1949-1952

C entenary Y ear : Next year will also mark the centenary o f this Society. A Committee is considering whether celebrations should be held to mark the event. I f the Council approves the Committee’ s views and it is found possible to hold appropriate celebrations I hope that the fullest possible support will be given by the profession. S uperior C ourts R ules C ommittee : Under the Courts o f Justice Act, 1936 the President for the time being is ex-officio a member o f this Committee which devotes its time to the making and altering o f Rules o f Court. My year o f service on this Committee has brought home to me, forcibly, the impossibility o f this Society, or the President, making any really useful con­ tribution to the work of the Committee. The President is only a member for the year. It takes him some little time to acclimatise himself to the workings of the Committee and just as soon as he is sufficiently au fait to start making a worth­ while contribution his year o f office expires and a new President finds himself in a similar predicament. As you will appreciate many o f the Rules concern points o f practice and solicitors rather than Barristers ought to have a special knowledge o f procedure, as carrying through an action in its preliminary stages and up to trial and the office work connected therewith, are primarily matters for solicitors. The Bar is primarily concerned with what happens at trial, whereas solicitors are concerned with pre-trial procedure, and the impact of a complicated system of procedure is felt by the solicitor in his office expenses and by the public in the delays of reaching trial. I personally think it is most important that the profession should be represented permanently on the Committee by at least two solicitors with a detailed knowledge and experience o f Court procedure and I would like to see the Society apply for an appropriate amendment in the Courts of Justice Act, 1936, to bring this about. R elations with the B ar : As you would expect our relations with our cousins at the Bar are excellent in every respect. There is a matter, although a delicate one, to which I feel I should refer, having regard to the degree of interest which now exists in the solicitors’ profession on this subject. Not so very long ago it was possible to conduct a High Court action with a Junior and Senior Counsel. Nowadays what amounts to an invariable practice has grown up o f retaining two Senior Counsel in almost every case. Solicitors are finding 5°

securities is frequently delayed for over two months, due to delays in issuing Grants of Probate or Administration, registration of which is, o f course, necessary to free securities registered in deceased client’s names. It is only proper that the public as a whole should appreciate the reason for the delay and losses referred to. The Minister acknow­ ledged that there had been delays in recent months but undertook to have the matter speedily examined with a view to introducing improvements, and I have no doubt that he will do so. L aw R eform : In my address, in May last, I referred to the Company Law Reform Committee, on which Committee we are represented by Mr. Overend and Mr. Cox, and to Law Reform generally. The latter is being dealt with, I understand, by a section of the Attorney General’s Office dedicated to this task. I should like to have been in a position to tell you something o f the activities of these two bodies but unfortunately no information has yet been received by the Council as to their activities. It was, indeed, refreshing during my recent visit to the United States to find a new Law Centre opened by New York University dedicated to legal research, for the purpose of Law Reform. In New York the-view is taken that the ordinary practitioner is too busy to give adequate time to the necessary research, the sections of Government are too narrow in concept to give adequate treatment and that the matter is one primarily for the Universities, where students, post-graduate and otherwise, are used for the purposes o f the necessary research preliminary to formulating proposals subsequently to be considered and approved at higher level. It may well be that the law schools of Dublin University and University College, Dublin and the law student o f the K ing’s Inns and our own apprentices could be utilised to do a useful amount o f spade-work for the Law Reform Com­ mittees and at the same time improve their own legal education. This Society would like to see a more widely based approach to the reform of outmoded laws and the codification o f existing legislation—it is a pressing matter but this Society is powerless in the matter. S olicitors ’ R emuneration : In my last speech I referred to the very un­ satisfactory position of solicitors’ remuneration. I hope that I can tell you with confidence that better rimes lie ahead. As the matter is still subjudice I feel I cannot say more, but New Year, even though Leap Year, may bring fresh hope to even those of us who are securely wed.