SOLICITORS' TRUST FUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 95, 23 April 1928, Page 6

SOLICITORS' TRUST FUNDS.

Attention may be drawn again to the utter futility of the present sj stem of audit of solicitors' trust accounts, " which audit is no safeguard against dishonuf ty, as it is usually impossible for any auditot" to discover defalcations by this method uif til it is too late, if the embezzling lawyer sinj ply neglects to pay trust moneys into his trtust account and to enter them in his trust <« ccount books; he ■ thus able to use them fo t his own purpoaei without detection until | is hopelessly involved. It is surprising h4 *w long-suffering tk public is over this matter. The Government should impose an annual license fee of £8 on every solicitor, and sl»uld set up a foi out of these license fees to reimburse emfaezxM moneys, any balance of t! he fund to belong to the Government. This uif ;thod would, in may cases, cost less than the present useless audit of a solicitor's trust amount and would hare the important advantay_>■ of providing foods to reimburse those robin ed. There have bee* too many sad cases of el< lerlv men widows robbed of their money bj - a dishonest solicitor, persons who are precluded by reason of advanced age or ill-h<j ilth from earning • living. The legal ion is the closest tnfc union in the Dominion and imposes its #*> scaje of fees on the puhilic. An annual Beast fee of £2-5 for a solicl tor is a very low oa when it is remembered i that an 'auctioneer la to pay £40 a year. Tlj e provisions of a forf such as 1 have suggest! *1 should be taken if and insisted on by everj f Chamber of Comment in Xew Zealand. The# solicitors themiek® are unwise in their oppoosition to the tefo** suggested, as under patsent conditions thej are simply driving business to the PnH* Trustee and the trustee- companies. COMMON" SENSE.