The Gazette 1975

Us ,ne a s !hat con traded to be sold. Subject to the j la Ua! 'imitations imposed by the Court, the purchaser b . ' V a . r ^ ' 1 1 l o s P c c i f i c performance, but this may 0 limited by undue delay on his part, or if the Court ^nsidcrs th at performance would involve great hard- d 'P. The purchaser may theoretically be entitled -to amages for the failure of the vendor to complete, d u t . under the rule in Flurcau v. Thomhill the ^mages arc in general limited to the expenses actu- ^ >' incurred. The principle is that if a Vendor, who not undertaken to provide a good title, provided . acts in good faith and without breach of trust, unable to make a title, the purchaser cannot cover any damages for loss of his bargain. The ^ second lecture, entitled "The Solicitors of oday" w a s d e i i v e r C ( i b y M r G e r a j d Moloney, 1Clt °r, Cork. This was a very wide-ranging talk, j d among the subjects covered were:— The changes that have occurred in solicitors' offices for the last 20 years and the current use of modern aids, such as dictating machines, electric and automatic typewriters, mechanical acc * nting machines and Telex. The pressures are also much 2 Sweater today! As members of the Common Market, we will have to deal constantly with foreign lawyers who have a different concept of law. It may hence be pos- s, ble to plead a provision of the Treaty of Rome as superseding domestic law. The important case Van Zuylcn v. Hag, about the marking of a similar trade mark by both plaintiff and defendant, ^ a s decided on 3 July, 1974 in the European Gourt in Luxembourg; it only took eight w eeks for the reference to be determined by the European Court, which shows the speed with 3 Jtoich the Court expects to proceed. Gradually new forms of action are being intro- duced such as damage to children affected by thalidomide, and property rights in relation to mines and oilfields. Don't think that, because someone comes in with a claim on a basis that you ne ver heard of before, he is automatically without 4 a remedy. As solicitors we now have a right of audience in a 'I Courts. Advocacy is a specialised subject, but toose who practise in the Courts constantly must not only speak well but think on their feet. Many solicitors are in fact more able than barristers in tois field. A good solicitor will not run to Counsel 0 r advice on every conceivable occasion. ?°licitors will normally find precedents for draft- tog documents, but, even if they do not, good solicitors should find the words clearly and un- 5. ^ h ' g u o u s ly to express their client's intention. As regards costs, it is vital to explain to the client j^torehand the likely maximum charge, and then e will be unlikely subsequently to complain of jto overcharge. It is not only the question of how touch is charged, but how satisfied the client is th í h e w o r k d o n e - i s a l s o a d v i s a b ' e tC) t e " j ? e c " e n t from the beginning what may go wrong. you arc able ultimately to charge him less, he * r i I b e delighted.

6. The main complaints of clients are: (1) An un- • expectedly bad result; (2) Delay; (3) Expense. If delay is due to the solicitor's own fault, he should aámit it openly to the client, and try his best to remedy it. If delay is due to laches in govern- ment offices, the solicitor should warn the client beforehand that this is likely to occur. Solicitors should adopt some system whereby thev do not forget about a case that is not current. 7. Sooner or later scale fees will be investigated on behalf, of the public. Solicitors should activelv , support the Law Society's Questionaire on Time Costing; only 10% of the profession have replied so far. It need hardly be stressed that the answers will be confidential. Scale fees no longer apply in England, and there are guidelines as to what constitutes a fair and economic fee. It is obvious that a substantial measure of civil legal aid will have to be introduced. The system of time costing will assist us to ascertain the approximate cost of a particular job. Until civil legal aid is fully available it is our duty to make our services freely available to those who cannot afford it; when civil legal aid is available, the present high scale of conveyancing fees will be hard to justify. Remedies will have to be found to improve the present system of conveyancing on a building estate with a similar single title, whereby each purchaser is bound to investigate the title and pay a statutory scale fee. 8. It is up to us to improve our efficiency and to catch up on our arrears and to make sure that all our work is up to date. If a solicitor spends time in estimating in detail costs and the work in progress, it will be well worth his while. An efficient accounting and filing system is essential. It seems best to keep the correspondence on a brass tag in a manilla cover to be placed in a hanging container in a cabinet together with an envelope containing all the documents in the case. It is also essential to have a loose-leaf Index of all documents kept in the strong room alpha- betically under the client's name. Account must also be taken of the inevitable increasing over- heads. It is unwise to give too much credit to clients, as recovery may sometimes be difficult. 9. We should make ouselves acquainted with new- fields of law such as EEC Law or Tax avoidance. Mr. Martin Rafferty, of Belvedere Trust Ltd. delivered the next lecture on "Profit Motive". Inter- nationalism of business is becoming more powerful. International Corporations want to cut back and there is a gradual growth of international unions. Capitalism is beginning to be exploited. There is a growing influence of the media. Trading blocks, such as EEC currencies, tend to be used beyond national boundaries. In the U.K. and the U.S., the growth of companies having as their primary aim the stripping of assets, without regard to the body of workers affected or to the shareholders was seen by John Bentley in the middle and late '60s. This exploitation (even though in a minority of companies) brought business into disrepute. 55