The Law Society’s Gazette, May 1953The blind solicitor: Some of his problems and the means whereby they may be solved, by ‘Aveugle’

It is a fact that may surprise some, though by no means all, members of the profession that several solicitors practising in this country are blind.

The mere fact that they qualify is prima facie evidence of their abilities and resolution. Nor is it likely that a man who has met and solved difficulties in equipping himself for practising the law will be found wanting in the performance of the functions to which he has dedicated his talents and his life. Conscious of his powers, and better qualified than most men to know what he can do and what he cannot, the sightless solicitor is not the least worthy of those who in legal offices up and down the land serve the law and guard the liberties and properties of Englishmen.

For the Lawyer’s bookshelf: The Law of Libel and Slander, by O.S. Hickson and P.F. Carter-Ruck

What is one to say of a book which attempts, inter alia, ‘to provide a good working knowledge of the law of libel and slander sufficient to enable all whose livelihood depends on the printed word or whose duty it is to publish or make statements from time to time falling foul of that law’? It makes a surprisingly good story and should sell like hot cakes.

Tunny fishing at Scarborough, by Saville Cohen

As an incurable tunny-fisher I am delighted to know that the Society’s annual conference is to be held this year at Scarborough, the happy hunting ground for all good British tunny-fishermen. I have never tried eating the larger (and probably revolting) tunny that inhabit the seas around Scarborough, but the smaller members of the species found in the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic are tinned by the French and Italians and make a popular and palatable hors d’oeuvre.

The first question to be considered by the tunny fisher is the means to be adopted in getting to the fishing found. This may be achieved either by yacht, keelboat or coble.

May 1973 VAT is easier for the Bar

I wish to congratulate the Law Society’s VAT working party on the considerable efforts which it has made to explain such a complex subject in such an understandable form. But it cannot be disguised that the introduction of the tax means an additional financial burden to those of us in private practice.

Our treatment is in stark contrast to the Bar who are dealt with on a cash basis and, so far as I can see, the only additional expense for them is the purchase of an inexhaustible supply of green ink pens with which to complete and receipt their fee notes.