THE LAW AND LOCKSMITH

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 91, 5 July 1930, Page 3

THE LAW AND LOCKSMITH

PROFESSIONAL CHARGES. Considering the amount of flagrant misdemeanour with which they are necessarily brought in contact, some of our judges maintain a wonderful aptitude for feeling shocked. Mr. Justice Horridge has just been shocked by the evidence of a professional locksmith, who admitted that when he was called in to take an impression of two keys at a solicitor’s office he cut the resulting keys in an hour and a half; but “booked it heavy and charged for a day.” No wonder,” said the judge, "our workmen cannot compete with workmen abroad if that sort of thing is don- 1 .” But workmen abroad are not called in to perform a highly skilled job as part of preparing a case for hearing in court. Is there not, humanly speaking, more than a little excuse for a skilled craftsman who might say to himself, “Well, this is a legal job, and I’m jolly well going to make a day of it, and be paid at a legal rate?” How long has the legal profession been in the habit of charging for the exact amount of time spent instead of the knowledge and ability exercised? Does a surgeon charge strictly by time when removing an appendix, and without any regard to the means of the patient and the professional reputation of the operator? This was obviously a very expert locksmith called in for a special purpose. Evex-y----body else in connection with the ca.se would expect to be treated as a professional man and paid for what he knew as well as what he did —:o the locksmith?