The Daily News WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14. THE LAW AND THE PROFITS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81887, 14 November 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14. THE LAW AND THE PROFITS.

A CASE of more than ordinary interlit was heard in the Carterton Court la-t week and reported fully in the "Wairarapa Daily News." A local busine-s man had been guilty of the awful crime of doing work that only la .awyer is entitled to do, in that lie drew a simple lease for a simple room in the simple town of Uharau. llie Law Society was on its mettle and appointed a solicitor to sheet 'he charge home. ft was, 0 f course, the "preference, to unionists bus.ne a all over again, the Law Suciciy of New Zealand and it- members being the unionists. The defendant bioke the law. The question for the public 1.- whether the law is a fair one. The Law Practitioners' Act provides that a penalty of a fine 110; exceeding titty pounds may be imposed against any per-on who, not being a banister or a solicitor, shall be guilty of acting us a conveyancer.

The poor, suffering lawyers who were plaintiffs in this ease pointed out that thU law "was for the protection of ilu- public and the lawyers.'' lhe public won't be able to see in what way they are protected by that clause although they will at once see mat the lawyers have a very adequate protection. Whether it is right and proper that the lawyers should have this protection has been dceided by die Legislature, which lias a big -piinkling of lawyers, who, of course, know how necessary it is for the said lawyers to be shielded from this ■'piracy.' 1 It is not in the least like ly that a Stipendiary Magistrate hearing nich a case against an alleged ''pirate'' should have any leaning to the pirate's side, and it W therefore only to be expected that the duty of fining the defendant five pounds was not an unpleasant one. It was put forward at tins trial that no lawyer would be likely to plead the case of the defendant lawbreaker. Anyhow no lawyer did appear for him It ,-ppears he didn't ask one of them, for the excellent reason that every lawyer was naturally desirous of keeping his preserves strictly to liimselt and the other gentlemen of the wig and gown.

Under tile I.and Transfer Act a licenced conveyancer, not being a bar-ri-ter or solicitor, may draw up documents which are accepted by t.ie Lands' Transfer Office. The documents are. »f course, in a prescribed firm, and are familiar to most people who have had any land dealings, 'l'ht average lawyer gets them printed in heaps—and charges four guineas or less (plus the various charges incidental to sending' a typist to the public offices to get the instrument legisiered, etc.) As the forms of all conveyances under the Lands '1 ransfer Act are set out in the said Aci., they are available to any person who cares to search for them so that any persons party to a conveyance could, if the law allowed, save al expenses except those of registration, etc., by merely copying the prescribed form and lodging' it in the ordinary way. iiut the law does not beleve in anything so simple as this.

TllE law, mainly to protect lawyer-, makes the transferor or the tansfeiec pay the lawyer or conveyancer. It doesn't matter that the parties 10 a conveyance desire to save money. It can't be done. Apart from transaction's under the Lands Translei Act the ordinate person, even though 11c is a licensed conveyancer, cannot draw a document without a chance of getting the whole of the lawyeriu New Zealand —as in the. shape of the dread Law Society—up against him as plaintiffs. lie does not -ecm to have a hope. It does not matter that an outside person may be con-ver-ant with the form or precedent necessary to convey the tenancy of a loom, or a pig-tye, or any other property. He may get it from the >ame book the lawyer gets it from. Most of the forms are in the same involved and extraordinary terms that the lawyer' employed in the reign of tie' Henrys.

I'HE private per-on with more knowledge than Ills c.iem may want to -ave that client the money the client would spend if he went to a lawyer and the'lawyer instiucicd his typist to rush olf half a dozen folios of precedent he had long since learnt by heart, tor wiiich the client would be

cnaiged anything from one guinea to tour. It transpired during the hearing of this case that it wa- the practice lor solicitors to take insti ucuons "horn respectable land agents." That is to say, the re-pcoablc land agents might draw a lease or any other tiansfcr and hand it over to a respectable lawyer, who wou.d, of course, diaw a respectable fee, which is the soie object of tlie existence of the Law Sucifcty and the lawyep-'mjiuc Law Act. liven supposing that no respectable laud agent gave a respectable lawyer the necessary instructions to help, the lawyer's clerk with a year s experience and a book of precedents would bo able to do all Uiat was required.

iTili chief point for the public i?, "Is a lawver honorably justuied iu oiaiging, =ay, lour guineas tor the drawing oi a document that can be equai.y well drawn by any other intelligent person lor ihe mere trouble oi copying lrom an Act of a book of piceuUonta.' ;: 1& the law that provides a penany not exceeding tifly pounds 101 such a bieacn a lair law." And is mere any ieasou why lawyers should !/.- a.lowed to keep the air of awlul-ne-s, my-tery and U'gii piices which iae sinaiie-t legal transaction always involvesill the matter of documents 01 conveyance registrars or aa) other pub ic olhcci's should be the people to tk'tcunine their validity. I'here is nu special virtue in a lease drawn by a lawyer any more uian there is any special corruption 111 a i lease in exactly the same teinis < drawn by a navvy. The bin is in < 'pKV-nting die lawyer from making ; liis charges. Lviry person, no mat- ; ier whai his occupation, is >upposed >, to know the law ou every point. There \ is not a lawyer in New Zealand who «. cou!d.»?of- 1 >«* tripped up in many i points oil' law. The cure for this i» ( the simplihcalon of the und t the simplification of legal procediiie. t

lr shuuM be competent fur any citizen who has oidinaiy conveyance to transact to buy a Suite (loummni ju-->t as lie buy- Stale coal. Tin ru ii'-'vcr \\iib any lea-on why a l.u\yei sli'Hi.d Mi several guinea- lur the work hi-- iruaJly ill paid clerk ill-.- in half an hour, without the >aid i.iwyer's c. Tin Caiioj 1.0,1 di i'- nckni. c<m dn'i have won his <a--c it h-- h.jd been able 1" get 0110 of the plaintiffs—Gibi'itian situation—u> appear f<>r him. The law say- ii i-. a • l .iii f"r a non lawyer in d<> the work a law;,or, and there you are! And Hie l t iw i- not an ass—tu tho lawyers.