[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Search] [Feedback]
	Northern Irish Legislation
You are here:  BAILII >> Databases >> Northern Irish Legislation >> SOLICITORS (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1976

[Index] [Table] [Search] [Notes] [Noteup] [Previous] [Download] [Help]

SOLICITORS (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1976 - SECT 69

69.(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part and to regulations, a solicitor
may make an agreement in, or evidenced by, writing with his client respecting
the amount and manner of payment for the whole or a part of any past or future
services in respect of non-contentious business done or to be done by the
solicitor, either by a gross sum or by commission or percentage, or by salary
or otherwise, and either at the same rate as, or, subject to the provisions of
regulations, at a rate different from, that at which he would otherwise be
entitled to be remunerated.

(2) Such an agreement shall not affect the amount, or any right or remedy for
the recovery, of any costs recoverable from the client by any other person, or
payable to the client by any other person, and any such other person may
require any costs payable by him to or recoverable by him from the client to
be taxed in accordance with the provisions of this Part, unless such person
has otherwise agreed.

(3) Any such agreement shall be limited to the conduct and completion of the
non-contentious business in respect of which it is made and shall not extend
to any other non-contentious business unless subsequently agreed upon in
writing between the client and the solicitor.

(4) A provision in any such agreement that a solicitor is not to be liable for
negligence, or that he is to be relieved from any responsibility to which he
would otherwise be subject as an officer of the Supreme Court, shall be wholly
void.

(5) If it appears to a judge of the High Court upon an application made to
such a Court in that behalf that any such agreement is in all respects fair
and reasonable between the parties, the judge may order the agreement to be
enforced in such manner and subject to such conditions as to the costs of the
application or otherwise as he thinks fit; but if the terms of the agreement
do not appear to him to be fair and reasonable the judge may declare the
agreement to be void and may order the cancellation or variation of the
agreement and direct that all or any costs incurred or chargeable in respect
of the matters included in the agreement be taxed under this Part.

(6) Except as otherwise provided in the foregoing provisions of this Article,
the bill of a solicitor for the amount due under any such agreement as is
referred to in this Article shall not be subject to taxation.

(7) Nothing in this Article shall make valid the purchase by a solicitor of
any interest or part of an interest of his client in any action or other
contentious proceeding, or make valid any agreement by which a solicitor
stipulates for payment only in the event of success in an action or proceeding
or stipulates that the amount to be paid to him shall be a percentage of the
amount or value of the property recovered or preserved or otherwise made
dependent upon the result of an action or proceeding.

© 1976 Crown Copyright

BAILII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.bailii.org/nie/legis/num_act/sio1976344/s1976.html