The Gazette 1964/67

The other meetings were very successful and we are all hoping that this venture will not be an exception. The members of the Midland and Roscommon Bar Association have gone to great pains to help to organise the meeting as a whole and in parti cular have very kindly invited us to a Cocktail party to be held before the Dinner Dance to night. This is a proud moment for me. It is the first time that I have had the privilege and pleasure of addressing a meeting representing the entire solicitors' profession in the country. I have been entertained by many of you in a typically Irish manner in your own particular parts of the country and am very happy to be able to say that I have made many new friends. You are aware that our profession plays a very vital part in the life of the community. It is our function to protect individuals against wrongs that may be inflicted on them by their neigh bours or at times by a department of state, local authority or other large and powerful organisation or corporation. I feel and hope that I am right in thinking that there is a more appreciative reaction in the minds of men nowadays to us. We have often in the past been more likely to obtain publicity for our misfeasances than for the good work we do for our clients in our quiet way. In this connection, I would like to appeal to the Press and indeed to the members of the bench, especially on the criminal side, that when they happen to be dealing with one of our less fortunate brethren that they would impress on their readers and listeners that such a one is the exception and not the rule. This is proved to a great extent by the manner in which applications to the Society under the Compensation Fund have decreased in last year or two. I will speak further about this later. In another way, dare I say a minor way, the profession has received a boost in the public eye as to the quality of its members. A new Dail is sitting and many solicitors have been elected to the house. I think I can safely say that the front benches on each side of the house contain more solicitors than ever before. In point of fact, 70 % of our solicitors T.D's are on the front bench. We are pleased at this and it is good to know that we have champions to promote our cause whenever legislation is introduced or before it is introduced which might affect us adversely. We are hopeful that the numbers of solicitors in the Senate will not decrease even though one of them has moved to the Dail. SOLICITORS' BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION Last January, I had the honour of addressing the Annual General Meeting of the Solicitors' Benevolent Association. I said then that many if not all of my predecessors had ex pressed the view that the Solicitors' Benevolent Association was worthy of the support of all the profession. I make no excuse for repeating that. It does still seem that my pre decessors efforts have not been wholly fruitful. There are a number of solicitors in the Country, I use Country in its fullest sense, who are not yet members. I appeal to all solicitors to join. The Association with its limited funds carries out a charity the merit of which cannot be assessed in words. I know that even in the last month, the Association made a payment out of their funds to help a family which ran the danger of becoming destitute. They cannot repeat this should the occasion arise without constant and regular contributions to their funds. All solicitors should join and in conclusion rnay I remind you of their motto "Bis dat qui cito dat". LAND ACT The Land Act, 1965 has become Law since our last General Meeting. It is an Act which our members must study with the greatest care. I do not want to go into the social aspect of its provisions. This side of the bill has been dealt with in the greatest possible detail by both houses of the Oireachtas. It is now law and we have our duty to carry out its provisions

and advise our clients on it. Many of the sections need very special study and the Council are preparing a short memorandum to be circulated to all members through the medium of the Gazette. This may not be sufficient as it can hardly be comprehensive and all the implications cannot be dealt in a short memo randum. For these reasons, I must advise a fully comprehensive study of the Act, particularly by our members outside the city or defined "towns". LEGAL AID The Minister for Justice made an Order bringing in Legal Aid in Criminal Cases commencing on April ist. The Law Society made strenuous efforts to have what we consider were proper fees fixed for work done by the solicitors' profession under the Act. We failed in that but despite this we felt we could not advise the profession not to assist the scheme in so far as they could as a social measure. Many solicitors have joined the panel—whether they joined or not was a matter of free-will for each individual. It is too early yet to know if the Scheme is working or will work. I personally have heard of very few cases at all in which legal aid was assigned. So far as I know, District Justices are loth to embark on the troublesome waves of an uncharted ocean and it looks as if the measure may only be used in some larger crimes and none of these have come to light as yet. We know of course that the Department of Finance will be like the famous Skibbereen Eagle—keeping its eye on the Czar—and though they have no direct control, we feel that they will not be too happy if the overall costs bring a heavy burden on the community. It is very unlikely that it will do so unless the District Justices dispense legal aid with very lavish hands. The figure of £20,000 has been mentioned by the Minister as the sum allocated in the estimate for his Department for free legal aid service. If the trend in the number in crimes is upward as unfortunately it appears to be, this figure may well be exceeded unless the old maxim "Crime does not pay" is still true and I doubt if it is. The Minister himself has said that he hoped that legal aid would be available to every hard case, by which I presume he meant deserving case but added, quite correctly I think that in no circumstances should we have a situation where legal aid was available to everybody irrespective of circumstances or the person involved. As against this, I do not think that District Justices or Judges should be too strict in dealing with applications. If the Government want the scheme, they must be prepared to finance it. SUCCESSION BILL The First Succession Bill was one of the items which caused the Council great concern for a long time. No one outside the Council could conceive the amount ofwork done in connection with the Bill by my predecessor, Mr. Desmond Collins. As a result of his efforts and those of his colleagues on the Sub Committee, a statement was prepared and issued to the Press shortly after I took office. It would appear that as a result of this and all the other agitation by the Society and outside bodies that the Minister made recommendations to the Government •which were accepted and resulted in the radical alteration of the original scheme. This alteration did not go the whole way and certainly did not satisfy the objections to the general principal of the Bill. I and many others still contend that freedom of testamentary power is a natural right which should be left to everybody. If in exceptional circumstances, a relation who should have been the object of a bequest in a Will and was not so, was aggrieved, an Act could be passed giving such person a right to appeal to the Courts. We awaited with interest the text of the New Bill which could replace the old one. The text of that revised Bill was • issued to the Dail on May 12th.