THE SYSTEM OF "DEVILLING."

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 427, 15 July 1913, Page 2

THE SYSTEM OF "DEVILLING."

A correspondent writes to the editor of 'The Times' as follows: — Your correspondent " Quintilian " has aimed a well-merited blow at the conduct of - cases by counsel and the antiquated system of " devilling " which still permeates the Bar. In these enlightened days one would have thought that solicitors, at any rate, would have realised that " devilling " or the gratuious performance of another man's work, was not the best value for their clients' money. ' Of yore the "devil" had' the hope and op-] porfcunity before him of at least getting a > client if he acquitted himself well. To-day, however, the wheels within wheels which distribute the work amongst an infinitely larger profession offer the veriest scintilla of any such hope. To-day the "devil" is luoky if . he is able to get up and conduct the case m coxivb himself; of the work m chambers, : especially m Chancery, only a fraction is '] done by the barrister who actually pockets 1 the fees. The small number of solicitors who refuse to allow even their court work to be " devilled," and insist' on the man who does the work having the fee, might almost be counted on your fingers. Surely the laborer is as : worthy of his hire at the (Bar as m any other walk of life, and the lay client would be well advised only to pay , the man who does his work. ;Much is talked and written about the delays of the law, but it would cause much astonishment if the secrets and juggling between the barrister, his clerk, and the solicitors were made known. The adjournments and arrangements to suit the convenience of Mr Blank, which are made behind the scenes before the court is nearly reached, would strike the modern business instinct . dumb. Deeply trenched m precedent, the j Bar has resisted all modern features of progress.