The Gazette 1911-12

| FEBRUARY, 1912

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

92

I will make them be as short and clear as possible. In the Irish Civil Statistics for 1910 you will find that there were 14,540 writs of summons issued in the High Court. Now, unfortunately, that return does not show the amounts for which these writs were issued, and it has only been by going through various unofficial lists .of writs issued and judgments marked in which the amounts of these writs and judgments were recorded, and by making calculations, that I have been able to ascertain the amount that these 14,540 writs would come to. Taking the period of twelve years, I have arrived at the average amount for which a writ is issued as being £35, and multiplying that by 14,540 you can see that £508,900 is the amount for which writs are issued annually on the Common Law side of the High Court of Justice. Let us now look for a moment at the figures dealing with Civil Bill matters in the Civil Statistics. We find that in the County and City of Dublin in the same year—1910— there were 6,799 Civil Bills actually entered for hearing, which is a different thing from being issued, because these 6,799 are cases in which decrees were made for either party, or. payment made or the case settled between the parties. In the Belfast Recorder's Court the number was 7,397, making a total of Dublin and Belfast of 14.197, or very nearly as many cases as writs were issued for the whole of Ireland. Now, in the whole of Ireland there were Civil Bills entered for hearing to the number of 82,153, or about five times as many as the writs actually issued in the High Court. Who can say, or what Government could say (if this matter is placed before them properly) that such a volume of business is not an important matter for the Merchants and Traders of this country ? Now, it is curious to see how the averages go. The average amount, taking cases entered for hearing as a basis, for which a decree is made in the City of Dublin is £1 3s. 4d., in County Dublin it is /8 13s. 4d., in the Belfast Recorder's Court it is £4, and for all Ireland the amount is £5 10s. Od. The number of cases entered for hearing in all Ireland is 82,153, and striking an estimate at £5 10s. each, we arrive at £451,841. Any County Court Practitioner's experience is that at least additional Civil Bills to the amount of one-third of those entered for

In the same year we prepared and sent forward a Bill which was considered by all interested, and apparently approved of by everybody, and it was brought in by Mr. P. J. Brady—whom I am glad to see here to day—at the request of the Incorporated Law Society. We all know the history and vicissitudes of that Bill. We all know that it had everybody's blessing, and apparently no one could say anything against it. I use the phrase " against it " advisedly, because we, from whom it originated, and those by whom it was brought in, knew and under stood that its provisions did not go half as far as they might have gone. We foresaw, however, that if we sought to introduce all those things which we knew were required there would be a hundred opposing it instead of one or two. We reduced the provisions of the Bill to the lowest minimum to meet the opposition and wishes of everyone interested, and what has been the result ? The result is that we are now in exactly the same position as we were in 1895 and 1896 when we started the agitation first. I felt, and those with me felt, that unless something could be done to let the public see and know that it was not the Solicitors' profession who were opposed to these most necessary reforms, that we would be blamed, and that we would con tinue to be blamed for nothing practical having been done to carry out the reforms that everybody wanted to be carried out. The Public Press is the only means whereby we can show that we, at all events, are not to blame, and we come here to-day to try, if possible, to get something done, to have some progress forward made. If we cannot make any progress, if nothing can be done to obtain the reforms we, as a profession, desire, then all we can say for our part is that it is not our fault that these suggested improvements have not been made, and that if the Public and the Merchants and Traders choose to put up with the well-known existing defects, then we, as a profession, wash our hands of all respon sibility (hear, hear). We ask for a Commis sion, and the only way to get it is to make the authorities understand that the defects in Civil Bill procedure are beyond yea or nay a most important matter to the Commercial community. I had occasion some short time ago to refer in this Hall to some statistics. I regret that I will have to do so again, but