An insight into the far more genteel world of the solicitor in 1961 has been kindly provided to us by the Law Society library, which recently unearthed a book that Chancery Lane published back then to inform the public about what to expect from a solicitor.


In The Services of a Solicitor, practitioners were promoted as homme d'affaires who could provide practical as well as legal advice for all the problems in life. Indeed, the book recommended the solicitor as the primary source of confidential advice, ahead of 'the near relative, the clergyman, the doctor, the probation officer [and] the policeman'.



Particularly curious are the series of 'real life' discussions held between solicitors, or between solicitors and clients, on various legal topics, that leave something to be desired on the realism front (unless detailed knowledge of the Hire Purchase Act 1938 was common among laymen of the time). However, some claimant solicitors may recognise the personal injury scenario in which the insurer rejects liability for a passenger in a road crash. 'Some defendants are unscrupulous,' observes the solicitor, 'but the vast majority of insurance representatives are people of integrity.' We won't hold a poll of claimant lawyers on whether or not that opinion still holds good.



It is in the attitude towards women - though there are signs in the book that old-fashioned opinions were starting to change - that the book shows its age. For example, a husband worries about his wife passing on some gossip for fear of committing slander. 'We might both be in real trouble,' he said. 'After all, a husband is responsible for his wife.'



And then there are the kinds of legal queries that you just don't see nowadays: 'My wife is, unfortunately, extravagant. When she got that legacy under her father's will, she opened credit accounts at the local shops. Now the legacy has all gone but the credit accounts remain open. Is it true that I will have to pay future bills unless I insert a newspaper advertisement saying that I won't be liable for my wife's debts?'



The advice was that the advertisement would not do the job legally, but it may nonetheless have some 'practical advantages'.