§ Colonel Burtonasked the Attorney-General whether, in view of recent defaults among solicitors in connection with moneys and securities belonging to their clients, he is prepared to introduce legislation which would enable clients to demand a note from their solicitor, countersigned by a bank, to the effect that the monies or securities held by their solicitor on their behalf were deposited with such bank and had been earmarked as belonging to the client subject only to legitimate charges?
1989W
§ The Attorney-GeneralRules made by the Council of the Law Society under the Solicitors Act, 1933, and approved by the Master of the Rolls, require solicitors to keep such books and accounts as may be necessary to show and distinguish (a) monies received from or on account of, and monies paid to or on account of, each of their clients, and (b) the monies received and the monies paid on their own account. They also require every solicitor who holds or receives money on account of a client without undue delay to pay it into an account at a bank distinguished as a "client account." They also empower the Law Society to require a solicitor to produce his books so that they may see that he has complied with the Rules. Frequent use has been made of the Rules, and the Law Society believe that they have been effective for the purpose for which they were intended, and that recent defalcations have been in respect of the period before the Rules came into operation, that is, the 1st January, 1935. It is not proposed therefore to introduce further legislation.