The Gazette 1944-46

had passed adverse comment. He had represented the Society at the adjourned hearing and in formed the Justice of the Council's views. The Vice-President's report was adopted by the Council. Unqualified Persons Preparing Agreements. THE Secretary reported that he had received a copy of a circular issued by a firm of Auctioneers' and Estate Agents in Dublin offering to undertake the work of preparing agreements and conditions of sale at nominal rates. It was ordered that the Secretary should write to the Auctioneers pointing out the penalties which may be imposed upon unqualified persons who undertake solicitors' work, and warning them against acting in the manner suggested by their circular. Land Commission Delays. THE President reported that he had attended with the Secretary to interview the Secretary of the Irish Land Commission on the subject of delays which have recently occurred and that he was hopeful that as a result of representations which had been made there would be a con siderable improvement in the position. He stated that the Secretary of the Land Commission had informed him that complaints accompanied by full particulars directed to him personally will be fully and confidentially investigated. APPLICATIONS FOR COSTS IN DEBT COLLECTING LETTERS. THE Council has recently considered the practice of including demands for costs in solicitors' letters applying for payment of debts before the institu tion of proceedings. The Council expressed the opinion that the practice should, in so far as it now exists, be discontinued. The opinion of the Council is limited to applications for immediate payment of liquidated debts. A contributed article on the position of solicitors in this matter is printed below. LETTER BEFORE ACTION. SOLICITORS will recall having seen the press reports some years ago of adverse comments by the Recorder of Belfast on solicitors' letters applying for payment of debts due to clients demanding payment by the debtors of a specified sum for the costs of the letter. The prominence which was given in the Press to the Recorder's remarks attracted the attention not only of members of the profession but of the general public. In several instances solicitors who

had obtained payment on behalf of creditors of small debts together with the costs of the letter of application, before the institution of proceedings, have since received demands from the erstwhile debtors for a refund of the amount of the costs on the grounds that they were not legally recover able and should not have been demanded. It is therefore of importance to the members of the profession who are entrusted with the work of debt collection to enquire (a) as to the propriety in the interests of justice of writing the usual warning letter before the institution of proceedings and the consequences of instituting proceedings without at least one such letter, and (b) the prop riety and wisdom of the admittedly long standing custom of issuing applications for payment of a debt, accompanied by a request for payment of a sum for costs, and an intimation that proceedings will be instituted failing payment either of the amount of the debt and costs or of the debt alone. In regard to the first question it will generally be conceded that a solicitor as an officer of the Court has to consider not merely the interests of his client and his personal interests but also the interests of justice, and it has always been the practice of the profession to give the debtor a final opportunity of discharging his obligations or compromising with his creditor before instituting proceedings. In Rinder v. Deacon (11 Ir. Jur. N.S. 414) Pigot, C. B., stated : "I hesitate about giving costs in favour of the plaintiff's attorney, for I think this motion indicates that it is the practice prevailing too much at present that an attorney instructed to collect the debts of an English client makes the summons and plaint the medium of his demand. The attorney's duty to the community at large and to his client was not to make the summons and plaint the first means of collecting his clients' debts, but to apply by letter in the first instance to the defendant." Although there appears to be no absolute legal obligation on a solicitor to write the usual pre liminary letter of warning before instituting proceedings, the rule of conduct laid down by Pigot, C. B., in 1866, only indicated what was then, and has continued to be, the general practice of the profession. The costs of such a letter will tax as between party and party, and, where the party and party costs are regulated by scale, the scale usually includes provision for such a letter. Even if solicitors had to write such letters gratuitously in all cases, most would prefer to do so rather than to institute proceedings without warning. The topic of the propriety of including applica tions for costs in preliminary letters is not new, and is the subject of old and conflicting judicial 32