182909-1931-Supplementary-Bills-read-a-first-time--Bankruptcy — Page 83

Amendment

of Ordinance

No. 1 of 1871, s. 23.

Amendment of Ordinance No. 1 of

1871, s. 23A.

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5. Section 23 of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, 1871, is amended by the deletion of the word "solicitor in the seventh line thereof and by the substitution therefor of the words "attorney, solicitor, law agent or proctor".

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6. Section 23 A of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, 1871, is amended by the deletion of the words Hongkong Law Society in the first line and by the substitution therefor of the words “Incorporated Law Society of Hong Kong"

Objects and Reasons.

1. Under section 21 of the principal Ordinance the court is empowered to approve, admit, and enrol such persons as have been admitted as attorneys, solicitors, or writers in one of the courts of London, Dublin or Ediu- burgh, or as proctors in any Ecclesiastical Court in England, to practise as solicitors in the court, and the expression "writer" is to be deemed to include "law agents as defined in section 1 of the Act, 36 and 37 Victoria, chapter 63.

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2. It is felt that the limitation to named cities is too restrictive. The rights and duties of Law Agents in Scotland are regulated by the Law Agents (Scotland) Acts, 1873 and 1891. The term "Law Agent" (equiva- lent to "solicitor in England) is defined by the former Act as "Law Agents, shall include Writers to the Signet, Solicitors in the Supreme Court, Procurators in any Sheriff Court, and every person entitled to practise as an Agent in a court of Law in Scotland ”,

3. The Secretary of State, in a recent circalar Despatch (dated the 8th January, 1931) forwarding an extract from a memorandum of the Council of the Scottish Law Agents Society regarding admission to practise in the Colonies, states that he is sure that the intention is that the same privilege should be conferred upon solicitors in Scotland as upon solicitors in England and that therefore the reference, so far as Scotland is concerned, should be "law agents admitted to practise in Scotland" and nothing

more.

4. Section 21 of the principal Ordinance is amended accordingly and sections 22 and 23 are made uniform therewith.

5. Sections 2, 22 and 23A of the principal Ordinance are also amended so as to give The Incorporated Law Society of Hong Kong its correct title.

April, 1931.

C. G. ALABASTER,

Attorney General.