LAWYERS AND THEIR CLIENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20964, 1 March 1930, Page 26

LAWYERS AND THEIR CLIENTS

AUDIT OF TRUST FUNDS. NEW ZEALAND LAW FAVOURED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 20. The New South Wales Gen eminent is again being strongly urged to bring down legislation on the lines of the New Zealand Guarantee Fidelity Act in order to protect both the public and the legal profession against the black sheep in the law who client their clients, A Kill providing for the compulsory audit of solicitors' trust accounts was introduced the Legislative Con,mil of New South Wales early last year, but was withdrawn. The profession plus its faith to the New Zealand legislation, providing, as- it does, for a law guarantee fund to which each solicitor contributes, n*, order to reimburse losses by defrauded clients after all oilier remedies a-jainst the dishonest legal practitioner "ave been exhausted.' The general belief i s that the New Zealand Aet is far preferable to the compulsory audit system, which is- said to have proved a failure since it neither protects clients—usually poor, unsuspecting individuals with a little property—nor in-events embezzlement.