A STATE LEGAL SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21581, 18 September 1935, Page 11

A STATE LEGAL SERVICE

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST

DISCUSSION BY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SOCIETY

Various arguments for and against the establishment of a state legal service were surveyed in three addresses 11? to the Public Service Administration Society last evening. The speakers were Mr C. Weston-Wacher, Mr S. T. Barnett, of the Lands and Survey Department, and Mr J. B. Trudgeon, of the Public Trust Office. After classifying state activities into public services most conveniently run by the state and services which were really state trading corporations, Mr Weston-Wacher said that a state legal service must be considered to belong to the latter class. He outlined the history of the legal profession, and its rise from the friends of a litigant who were, in early times, allowed to' support him in court. He showed how this early relationship still existed between coupsel and client, especially in the imparting of confidential affairs. The establishment of a state service would mean that this tradition would be lost. Lawyers, he said, could not be forced to divulge what their clients told them in confidence. He also raised the point that under ? system one employee might i,€? d , to contend against another. The difficulty of ensuring that tho same legal advice should be given in different branches of a state service had also to be faced. In general, he advocated the desirability of a bar as fearless and independent as the bench. Advocated in Conveyancing Law Dealing with conveyancing law, Mr S. T. Barnett said he considered that the introduction of a staW system in this branch would make for greater efficiency and reduce costs. He said that the fees charged bv the legal profession were often extraordinarily high. Many of the existing Government departments had the facilities for legal work of the kind with which he was dealing, and in mortgage relief work, he said, it had often been found possible to do such wefrk at a quarter of the cost charged by the legal profession, and more effectively. He said that under a state system greater organisation of the legal work could be effected, so that men could specialise in different kinds of work. Another thing was that the government would probably see to it that the "miserable wages" of law clerks would be raised. State Criminal Service Mr Trudgeon discussed the establishment of a state criininal service. Though he admitted that this mieht lead to the elimination of chance and the deciding of cases on forensic eloquence, he considered that if the state represented both the prosecution and the defence, a situation, possibly dangerous, might arise, in which the chances of the accused might be jeopardised. This conflict of interest in a state servjce was the main argument against it. The addresses were followed with discussion on the subject