LAW AND LAWYERS IN FRANCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 841, 13 June 1910, Page 11

LAW AND LAWYERS IN FRANCE.

HARD WORK FOR LOW FEES. LEISURELY METHODS. Although there is a certain resemblance between the status of lawyers •in France and in England, and in the-ir relations'.to their clients, there are also many differences worth, noticing (writes the Paris correspondent of the "Standard"). The avouo in Franco is thi! solicitor, and all French barristers are avocats, without distinctions, such as that of King's Counsel, serjeant,. etc. Supposing that A wishes to recover £50 from B. Not' having any personal friend amongst ;tho lawyers, he applies to' an avoue, who immediately asks him to pay down a provision of perhaps £10, and to give him the name of his lawyer. If A' lias been lucky enough never to have needed a lawyer, and consequently not to reckon a barrister down, on tho list of his encumbrances, the. avouo will immediately provide him with one. Tho next slop is for the avoue to bombard R with a stamped summons, requesting him forthwith to pay the 3um of £50 claimed by A, plus expenses. Hereupon 13 hands the summons over to his own avoue, who in turn names a lawyer, and the avoues and lawyers of both parties respectively exchange more stamped paper, until they have decided to light the matter out. Thereupon A's avoue applies to the court to fix a day for the hearing, which is done according to the amount of business on the role, or cause-list. As a rule, the first hearing is nominally fixed for about a month or six weeks from tho date of application. The Law's Delays. This closes the first stage of proceedings, for no ease ever comes up.when first called, and is generally postponed at least a dozen timos.' Unless it is an affair of extreme . importance tho avocat, having had it'inscribed in the cause-list, dockets the papers and pigeon-holes them until ho has nothing elso to do. When it is called for the first time, one or other of the counsel in charge is ill or absent at the seaside, or has need of further evidence, and asks for it to be postponed. This goes on until the -clients grow impatient or until the lawyers agree betweou themselves to cohil to Court. Before doing so they have to deposit ivith tho Tribunal their conclusions or detailed statements of their'cases for the prosecution, and the defence with the dossier, and all tho arguments they can adduce, and it is on theso conclusions virtually that most cases are tried and decided by the judge. The clients seldom appear, nor do the, counsel speak more than to develop tho conclusions they have ' already handed in. Tho costs are mado out by tha avoue, who can legally recover from the client although, the latter has the resource of claiming a taxing of them by the Tribunal. The counsel, as in England, cannot legally recover any fees, but are supposed by a' pleasant fiction to plead for tho love of justice or of their clients. As a matter of fact, a French avocat expects very, littlo from a friend, and though lie suggests a provision if he is personally asked to take up a case, it is a mere question of form, ..and' the /huge .fees earned by English practitioners are, very seldorq. seen by their , French confreres. . /• Divorce and Llbol. The result is that, whorcas a recourse mi tho law. is comparatively expensive in Franco for trifling cases, where the avouo runs up his pill for stamped paper and services of sheriff's. officers, when a heavy caso is tried ihe" cost? are insignificant compared with what they,would be in England; This is especially noticeable '..in thb Divorc'o Court and 'in affair-s of libel, where the damages given are generally very small, and where the leading lawyers are not very generally employed. Tho Divorco Court is inundated with cases of tho poor, and generally ' they • are pleaded, if pleaded at all, by. "assistance judiciares," or lawyers, named by tho Court to give their services gratis. As proceedings are private, and cannot legally bo'. 'published, there,' is littlo opportunity to win fame. Cases for libel are much loss frequent'than in England, or in Germany and Austria, and tho damages assessed are such aa would not at all satisfy English, ideas.

.'■ There is very, little specialisation in French practice, except perhaps for maritime cases, insurance, and fradulent trade marks. Otherwise : tne great lawyers aro ready to takn up criminal or, civil cases of every description with equal alacrity. . Formerly, as in England, barristers depended largely 6u solicitors or avoiies for their briefs, but it is- becoming more and more tho fashion and habit for clients.to apply directly to the lawyers. The question 'of fees is scarcely one that can bo gone into, but it may safely bo said that lawyers in France, with very few exceptions, do, not reap the .enormous harvests garnered by their leading confreres in England, and when applied to by the client direct they have not tho same system of. fixed tariffs,for every, consultation and appearance, with "refreshers" and all the other formidable items that swell the bill of an English litigant. ~ Hereditary Solicitors. The avoues aro a close guild, and their number is strictly limited. There arc 150 charges d'avoue attached to the Tribunal ol tho Seino, and whenever one falls vacant by tho death or. withdrawal from business of tho occupant the price of its sale is decided by the Ministry of Justice. Many, if riot most, of these officers, or charges, are handed down from father to soil, or son-in r law. and are "kept-in-the family'for generations. Tho transfer, however, ba's always to bo made by the sale, which, in many cases between father and son, is, of course, not moro than a fiction. Tho value of a charge is publicly snp■posed to be enormous, but as a matter of fact it is doubtful if one is generally worth much more than £8000 -'or £10,000, which is not extravagant for a flourishing, solicitor's practice. Amongst the cases that: are tried in France there are also' probably not moro than half a dozen a year in which the lawyers' fees on both sides amount to moro than £2000 or £3000. On the whole, the difference between the practices of barristers and solicitors on either side of the Channel is not very great, and the French lawyer, perhaps, has to work harder, for smaller fees usually, than in England: On the [other hand, although there are possibly fewer very large incomes made at the trench Dar than at the English, there are quite as many, if not more, lucrative smaller practices.