SOLICITORS BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 6 May 1919)

§ LORD BUCKMASTER

My Lords, this is a small and unambitious, but I hope your Lordships will think a useful, measure, designed at once for the purpose of relieving the Courts of some of the work that they now undertake, and placing the effective control of the solicitors profession in the hands of members of that profession itself. I need not occupy your Lordships long in explaining the provisions of the Bill, but it is necessary that I should state what is the present system under which solicitors are controlled. Apart from the authority that is exercised by each Judge of the High Courts over a solicitor owing to the fact that the solicitor is by virtue of his office an officer of the Court and therefore amenable to the jurisdiction of the Judge, cases that relate to misconduct on the part of a solicitor are always determined by a Committee of the Incorporated Law Society appointed for that purpose. If any charge is made against a solicitor for improper behaviour in the course of his work, such charge has to be substantiated by an affidavit. Evidence is heard and taken before this Committee to which I have referred, who then make a formal report, but having made a formal report their powers end, and they can do no more. It then becomes necessary to move a Divisional Court, which is a branch of the High Court of Justice, for the purpose of determining what is the punishment that is to be inflicted upon the solicitor after he has committed any grave breach of professional duty. Punishment consists either of striking him off the rolls or of suspending him from practice. This Bill places the power 478 of punishment in the hands of the tribun[...] which has heard the complaint, and I think your Lordships will agree that that is only right.

It seems on the face of it an unreasonable arrangement that the body of solicitors who are specially selected because of their intimate knowledge of the concerns of their own work to determine whether or not a solicitor has committed a breach of his professional duty should be robbed of all power of saying what is the proper punishment that ought to be inflicted upon him by reason of the breach. The Bill preserves to any solicitor who is dealt with under its terms, should it become law, the right of appeal to the Court against the sentence; so that in fact what the: Bill does is to place in the hands of the body who hears the case power to administer punishment, and reserves to the person who is punished the right of appeal to the Court. In other words, it relieves the Court of the necessity of considering all these cases independently, and preserves to them the right of controlling any irregularity or excess in the exercise of the jurisdiction. That is the whole purpose of the Bill.

The clauses carry out one by one what I have attempted to describe. The third clause is nothing but definition. The fourth is nothing but conferring power upon the Master of the Rolls to add to the Committee of the Council a person who is a past member of the Council practising. Clause 5 explains in detail what I have attempted to make clear to your Lordships in the course of the few observations that I have made. Clause 6 gives power to the Committee to administer this. Clause 7 is merely formal, as to the Order when it is made and how it is to be signed; and Clause 8 gives the power of appeal. Clause 9 gives the Committee power, with the concurrence of the Master of the Rolls, to make the necessary rules. I know that it has been suggested that it might be better if these rules were made by the Rule Committee that regulates the present procedure in the High Court. I do not really think that there is any very great substance in the complaint, because the rules will be made with the consent of the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Chancellor, and the Committee of the body, and it seems to me that that is sufficient security that the rules will be wise and just.

479 That is the whole measure. I trust that I have not broken the promise that I made that I would not keep you long in explaining its provisions, and I hope that I have not exceeded the just limits of expectation in trusting that you will grant the favour of a Second Reacting to the Bill.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD BIRKENHEAD)

My Lords, it may not be inconvenient that I should add an observation to what has been said by my noble and learned friend. I am of opinion that the change recommended by this Bill is both reasonable and moderate. As I understand the Bill, what it does in effect is this. It enables the Committee which is really the governing body of the solicitors' branch of the legal profession to discharge the ditties for disciplinary purposes of a Court of first instance. That right has been readily conceded to the branch of the profession to which my noble and learned friend and I belong, and is conceded also, as your Lordships know, in ample degree to the medical profession.

I have never been able to understand why the very sagacious, experienced and responsible gentlemen who are at the head of the solicitors' branch of the profession should be denied the power of dealing in the first instance with the complaints of professional misconduct which are brought against members of their own body; and, indeed, I know of no profession which could furnish from amongst its leaders a number of gentlemen more gifted in the necessary judicial qualities to take such decisions than the profession of solicitors. The matter, as my noble and learned friend has told your Lordships, is most amply safeguarded by the right of appeal which is preserved, and I believe that the reform recommended by this Bill would have the happiest results, both upon the solicitors' branch of the profession itself and also on the Law Courts by relieving congestion.

This is not the first time that this proposal has been recommended to your Lordships, but it has, unfortunately, up to the present not made any very considerable progress in another place. The solicitors' branch of the profession is not without influence elsewhere, and I, for one, hope that they will use their legitimate influence to see that on the present occasion this Bill becomes an Act.