DEFAULTING SOLICITORS.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 56, 4 May 1928, Page 2

DEFAULTING SOLICITORS.

TO THE EDTTOB Sir.—Another case of alleged conversion of over £7,000 of Trust Funds by a solicitor, again draws attention to the utter futility of the present system of audit of solicitors' trust accounts, which audit is no, safeguard against dishonesty, as it is usually impossible for any auditor to discover defalcations hy this meitliod. until- it is too late, if the embezzling lawyer simply neglects to pay trust moneys into his trust account and to enter thejm in his trust account} books; ho is thug able to use them for his own purposes without deteotiou until lie is hopelessly involved. It is surprising how longsuffering the public aro over this matter. Tlio Government should impose an annual license fee of ,£25 on every solicitor, and should set up a fund out of these license fees tol reimburse embezzled moneys, any balance of the fund to belong to the! Government. Tin's method would, in many cases, cost less than the ■present useless audit of a solicitor's! trust account and would have the important advantage of providing funds to reimburse those robbed. There; have been too rilany sad cases of elderly men and widows! robbed of their money By a dishonest solicitor, persons who are precluded bv reason of advanced ase or .ill hrinlth from ca.rnJing a .living! Tlio legal profession is tlio closest

trada union in the Dominion, and imposes its own scale of fees on the! public. An annual license fee oi l £25 for a .solicitor i s a very low one* when it is remembered that an auctioneer )ia« to' pay ,"10 a year. The provisions of a fund such, as I havcj suggested! should be taken up and insisted on by cvary Chamber of Couii. mrco in New Zealand The solicitors themselves are unwise in the.i opposition toi the reform suggested. I am, "COMMON SENSE".