LAWYERS AND THE PUBLIC

Evening Star, Issue 22938, 21 April 1938, Page 10

LAWYERS AND THE PUBLIC

SCHEME FOR FREE SERVICE TO POOR IS CHRISTMAS VACATION TOO LONG? CPsa Un.ied Pkes? Assocutiob.J CHRISTCHURCH, April 21. The Christmas vacation of a fortnight, when all legal offices were closed, should be reconsidered. The profession had to preserve continuity of service, and lawyers must always be available when C. Stephens, of Dunedin, advanced this argument when he spoke of the relations of the legal profession and the public in the course of an address to the conference of the New Zealand Law Society to-day. Although the vacation was no longer than the holidays of public servants and the employees of commercial undertakings, there was, said Mr Stephens, a certain amount of complaint from business and commercial men because their legal advisers were not available for the Christmas fortnight. This might be adjusted to the advantage of everyone. Mr Stephens emphasised that the lawyer owed to the public gratuitous service. “He should be prepared to give assistance to those who are genuinely too poor to pay for legal assistance,” he added. “At present a considerable amount of work is done tor nothing As no genuine case of distress should go without redress, organised aid to the poor is now being formulated. so that the poor persons relief procedure which has been so successful in England will soon be adopted to suit conditions here. This matter has received the attention of the Law Revision Committee, and a good scheme has been outlined.” The duty of lawyers to give general service to the community in matters outside their purely professional sphere was also stressed by Mr Stephens.