Page 19 Advertisements Column 1

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21732, 14 March 1936, Page 19

A curious item of information : T ii fronv Mr - Francis Pearson's ."Mem- .t, ories of a K.C.'s Clerk": ■;s£ It' may not be • generally • known that a barrister -cannot sue for his, fees. V£~ Indeed, strictly 'speaking,, he should pot -gr charge a. fee. He is supposed to rely entirely,, upon the generosity of- those j\\ whose cause he espouses, and a plain J;i construction .on this archaic arrange- fe ment is that he receives a* "tip.**" XHs So distastful a few centuries back was! the bare" idea of receiving" any 7*£ remuneration-for legal services - that, at the back of every, barrister's' gown' ; there" was sewn a sniall purse into which grateful litigants were 'supposed ffe to drop a trifle. This little purse still JSL exists. But litigants, particularly jm- ;fm& successful litigants; became rather sent-minded, and= fee became per- |gg missible but not "compulsory/ But it,-$& is the clerk who fixes tbjsjee—the , rister -lpn-MfSS^i^^iipS^^^^g^-