CHEAPER LAW

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 30, 6 February 1933, Page 3

CHEAPER LAW

THE PROFESSION'S PART

POSITION IN ENGLAND

In Ma presidential address at the annual provincial meeting of .the English Law Society, Mr. C. E. Barry,' the president, referred to the history of the Law..§ppjety and said that although there had been no compulsion/whatever on. .members of the profession to join, yet out of 15,600 lawyers who took out practising certificates, 10,328 were members of the society. Examinations were first instituted under Bules of Court in 1836 and were entrusted to the control of th'e'Law Society in. 1877. M^. Barry then'referred'to the work done.for. .the profession .by the society and the council, and submitted that it was the duty of every member of the profession to belong,to. the society. Yet if membership -were compulsory it would give the society more .effective control over the conduct of solicitors than they had at present. It would make the council mqra effectively.: representative of the whole body of solicitors, says the "Morning Post.'''' It was too early to know whether the new rules on costs of litigation would speed up and cheapen litigation. If, as he. hoped, the rules succeeded in this, then,the question of extending\taem. to a further, class of action and to district registries generally would no doubt be considered. Another suggestion that had often been, made with a view to facilitating and cheapening litigation was to give unlimited jurisdiction ;' to the county Courts."' Although he thought that the jurisdiction should be extended, he considered the' time was not yet ripe for unlimited . jurisdiction. being given,' They ought, he thought,'to concentrate on aomg what they could to popularise, cheapen, and expedite the procedure of the High Court. As to other means of cheapening litigation, the two-thirds rule in respect of counsels' fees had recently been modified, in cases where the leader's fee was over 150 gnineas, but the council did not think that went far enough, as it only affected , a comparatively small number of cases. As a profession, they had made their contribution to lessening the expense not only of litigation, but legal matters generally, including the cost of conveyancing. They had voluntarily agreed that the 63i per cent, authorised to be added to profit costs should be reduced to 25 per cent, in litigious matters, and to 20 per cent, in other matters. . Concluding,, the president said:— Commercial business and methods have changed in a remarkable manner in recent years and necessarily so, and we lawyers have had to adapt ourseives to those changes. The more progressive we are in dealing witfi matters that come before us the more successful I am convinced we shall be. "Let us take a broad view and a lonsr view of matters affecting our profession. .We are officers of the Court and servants of ths public, ana I can safely say that the trust reposed in us has been faithfully discharged, and it will always be our endeavour to justify the confidence reposed in us. "Above us, let us do all we can to maintain and enhance the honour and integrity of the profession to which we belong." i ' ' ."'..'"