SOLICITORS' TRUST.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 209, 4 September 1929, Page 20

SOLICITORS' TRUST.

I FIDELITY GUARANTEE FUND. SOME MINOR AMENDMENTS. PREFERENCE TO SMALL CLAIMS. '(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Minor amendments were made by the Legislative Council to-day in the Law Practitioner's Amendment (Solicitors' Fidelity' Guarantee Fund) Bill. Premiums payable in respect of insurance contracts entered into by the council of the Law Society may be paid out of the guarantee fund. No amount is to be paid out as interest on the amount of judgments or claims against the fund. The council is given absolute discretion to determine the order in which judgments and claims charged against the fund shall be satisfied, and if the amount accumulated in the fund is not sufficient to satisfy all claims in full they may be satisfied in whole or in part. In such cases consideration is to be had for the relative degrees of hardship suffered or likely to be suffered by various claimants. Except in special circumstances, claims for amounts not exceeding £500 arc. to have preference for settlement in full.

It is further provided that no solicitor or barrister is to have any claim against the fund in respect of thefts committed by any solicitor to whom the Act applies.