LEGAL ETIQUETTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21426, 25 February 1933, Page 11

LEGAL ETIQUETTE

JUDGES WHO RETIRE QUESTION OF TAKING BRIEFS Is it correct legal etiquette for a Judge who has retired from the Bench to go into chambers and. accept briefs to argue in the Court over which he but recently presided ? There are scores of people who say that he should not, but these people have either good incomes or fat pensions, says the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne Age. The argument has arisen owing to Mr. Piddington, K.C.—formerly Mr. Justice Piddington of the State Industrial Arbitration Court, and at one time called to the High Court Benchbeing asked to be counsel for the unions in the Standard Working Hours inquiry which the Full Court Bench is about to commence.

Not so long ago a stipendiary magistrate retired from the Bench on a pension so inadequate that it would be absurd to ask a man to live on it. He read up and qualified as a solicitor, and can practise in the Court over which he presided. Ml'. Piddington, K.C., is certainly a lionhearted man to enter-the lists again. But .that is not the poinj. The writer adds:—" There is something in the Act, put there in the interests of the worker, to save expense and to prevent* the people with the most money buying up the great bursts of legal eloquence, which says that the Court shall be free from solicitors or barristers, and that the officers of the parties, unions or associations, or something akin, shall do all-the arguing necessary. There are also some old laws which may or may not have some bearing on the matter that a retired Judge shall not practise in a court in which he has hitherto had jurisdiction. -,