Law Society Gazette 4 March 2010

Law Society unveils policy manifesto

The Law Society has published a policy manifesto ahead of the forthcoming general election, urging all political parties to respect the rule of law and ensure access to justice. Chancery Lane also urges the next government to restore the status of the legal aid system to that of a ‘frontline service’ such as health and education.

2 March 2000

Courts make £7.8m surplus

National Audit Office accounts published for the Lord Chancellor’s Department have shown that the civil courts brought in surplus receipts income of £7.8m last year, including money received from court fees. The accounts also showed that the LCD used a £2.7m surplus in its court service account – which represents government subsidy and does not include court fees income – to pay for a £3.5m shortfall in its own running costs.

March 1960

Professional incomes

The Royal Commission on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration found that a solicitor in England and Wales could expect to receive within the ages of 30 and 65 average total earnings of £88,000, compared with average total earnings over the same period of £105,000 for actuaries, £92,000 for members of the bar, £84,000 for all classes of National Health doctor and also for graduates in industry and £78,000 for all classes of dental practitioner.

March 1940

Minutes of proceedings

The president: ‘I regret to say that the stock of our profession is at present at a very low level, perhaps lower than that at which it has ever stood. Powerful and important though the legal profession should be, our voice carries little or no weight in the councils of the nation. Our just complaints are not listened to and not redressed; we have recently been, like Czechoslovakia and Poland, the victims of unprovoked aggression in the matter of legal representation before sundry government tribunals.’

Topics