LAW PRACTITIONERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 55, 14 September 1928, Page 15

LAW PRACTITIONERS

PROPOSED LEGISLATION "The Post" has been asked to publish the following "Open Letter to our Legislators" regarding the Law Practitioners Act Amendment Bill:— Gentlemen, —I entreat you, while there is yet time,' to give this matter tho necessary. amount of earnest thought and to do so in tho light of the following arguments: 1. New Zealand does not require more legislation, but less. The country is flooded with ; Acts of Parliament and saturated with regulations, and every additional ill-considered and unnecessary Statute will tend to increase the evil. For the.last seven years, has not this cardinal principle of good Government bceii largely overlooked, namely, that the fewer.laws and the less interference with the general public and every section of it the better for the ;country concerned. 2. If the Bill;becomes law there will be one restraining influence tho less on those gentlemen of the profession who are, in the eyes of tho Law Society, foredoomed to a period, if not a life, of criminality! They will be so far, at all events, free from mental stress, by reason of their knowledge that clients they have defrauded will (ultimately) lose nothing! 3. Tho provision in the Bill for a levy is grossly undemocratic (and as such should presumably, in this ultrademocratic country, be rejected) and unfair. Those practitioners who are scrupulously careful in their handling of trust funds must pay for the delinquencies of those who are not, and the struggling solicitor earning a bare livelihood will apparently pay the same amount as tho wealthy man with an established practice earning thousands a year. 4. As to the clause exterminating land brokers, the less said about that the hotter for tho credit of the legal profession. Any alteration of tho law in this direction should be on the motion of the heads of the Land Transfer Department, and not otherwise. 5. By promoting the Bill the Law Society is admitting that they are powerless, impotent! What is tho society for? What manner of attitude is it. for men, particularly men who have the reputation of being among the best brains of the community, to say to the general public: "We can't help it! Some of us will inevitably be embezzlers, and from time to time some of you will be financially indisposed, but we will give you dope and make you well again!" "Eat what you like and take AntiAcido M' That is precisely the principle, and I have yet to learn one more vicious. If the society is to justify its existence,' let it take action and handle the positon as it should be handled and so render impossible any repetition* of the shameful lapses of the past. It can be done, and the only legislation necessary is with regard to the age at which solicitors should bo permitted to start practice, the conditions as to fidelity guarantee, and otherwise, to be complied with before they do so, a provision authorising a surprise audit and investigation at any tinio at the instance of the local district law society, and a drastic increase in the penalty for wrong-doing. Suppose, for instance, the punishment was a flogging every month for the rest of their lives! How many defaulters would there be? And how few! IVON A. BORTON. Palmerston, Otago.