Jersey Law 17/1971
SOLICITORS (JERSEY) LAW, 1971.
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A LAW to
make new provisions relating to the admission and practice of solicitors, to
alter the qualification for the appointment of a person to the office of
Judicial Greffier and to provide for ancillary
matters, sanctioned by Order of Her Majesty in Council of the
28th day of JULY, 1971.
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(Registered on the 10th day of
September, 1971).
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STATES OF JERSEY.
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The 9th day of March,
1971.
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THE STATES, subject to the sanction of
Her Most Excellent Majesty in Council, have adopted the following Law : -
ARTICLE 1
QUALIFICATION FOR ADMISSION
A person shall be eligible for admission to practise
as a solicitor if –
(1) he
is a British subject ; and
(2) he
has attained the age of twenty-one years ; and
(3) he
has passed the qualifying examination for solicitors held in accordance with
the provisions of this Law ; and
(4) prior
to submitting his application to practise as a
solicitor in accordance with Article 7 of this Law, either –
(a) he has been employed
for a total period of five years in an Advocate’s or a Solicitor’s
office in the Island or in the Judicial Greffe, or in
more than one such office ; or
(b) (i) he
has a law degree of a British, French or Irish university ; and
(ii) he
has been employed for a total period of three years in an Advocate’s or a
Solicitor’s office in the Island or in the Judicial Greffe
:
Provided that for the whole of the two years immediately preceding
his application as aforesaid he has been employed in an Advocate’s or a
Solicitor’s office in the Island or in more than one such office.
ARTICLE 2
QUALIFYING EXAMINATION
(1) The
form and subjects of the qualifying examination for solicitors held for the
purposes of this Law shall be specified in rules of court and such rules may
include provisions for a preliminary examination and a final examination which
shall together constitute the qualifying examination for the purposes of this
Law.
(2) Rules
of court made under this Article may also provide –
(a) for a person to be
exempted from one or more of the sections of an examination in the
circumstances and according to the conditions set out in the rules ;
(b) that a person who has
failed to pass in a section of the examination but who, in the opinion of the
panel of examiners appointed for that particular examination in accordance with
the provisions of paragraph (3) of Article 3 of this Law, has attained a
sufficiently high standard generally, shall be treated as having passed the
examination conditionally on his subsequently passing in the section in which
he has failed.
ARTICLE 3
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
(1) A
board of examiners (hereafter in this Law referred to as “the
Board”) shall be responsible for the conduct of examinations held in
accordance with the provisions of this Law.
(2) The
Board shall consist of Her Majesty’s Attorney General, who shall be the
President of the Board, Her Majesty’s Solicitor General, the Judicial Greffier and such number of Advocates and Solicitors of the
Royal Court as may, from time to time, be appointed for the purpose by the
Advocates and Solicitors of the Royal Court generally.
(3) Each
examination shall be conducted by a panel of examiners consisting of any two of
Her Majesty’s Attorney General, Her Majesty’s Solicitor General and
the Judicial Greffier and four other persons
appointed for that particular examination by the Board from amongst its
members.
ARTICLE 4
HOLDING OF EXAMINATIONS
Examinations for the purposes of this Law shall be held during the
month of April in each year :
Provided that no examination shall be held unless an application
has been made to the Board in accordance with Article 5 of this Law.
ARTICLE 5
APPLICATION FOR EXAMINATION
(1) Any
British subject who has been ordinarily resident in the Island for the whole of
the two years immediately preceding his application and who fulfils the
educational requirements specified for this purpose in rules of court may apply
to be examined in accordance with the provisions of this Law.
(2) A
candidate for examination under this Law shall submit his application in
writing to the President of the Board not later than one month before the
beginning of the month in which the examination is due to be held and shall
submit with his application documentary evidence of his compliance with the
provisions of paragraph (1) of this Article.
(3) The
President of the Board shall, not later than fourteen days before the date of
the examination, notify every candidate of the date when, and the time and
place at which, the examination is to be held.
ARTICLE 6
EXAMINATION RESULTS
The President of the Board shall inform every candidate of the
result of an examination and shall deliver to each successful candidate a
certificate to that effect.
ARTICLE 7
APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION AS SOLICITOR
(1) A
person (hereinafter referred to as “the applicant”) who has
fulfilled the requirements set out in Article 1 of this Law and who wishes to practise as a solicitor shall submit his application in
writing to Her Majesty’s Attorney General together with the necessary
documentary evidence in support thereof.
(2) Her
Majesty’s Attorney General shall forthwith inform the Bailiff that he has
received the application and the Bailiff shall arrange for a sitting of the
Superior Number of the Royal Court (hereafter in this Law referred to as
“the Royal Court”) to consider the application as soon as may be
practicable.
(3) At
such sitting, Her Majesty’s Attorney General shall submit the application
and the accompanying documents to the Royal Court, together with his
conclusions thereon.
(4) The
Royal Court, if it so determines, shall authorize the applicant to practise as a solicitor and shall administer the oath set
out in the First Schedule to this Law.
ARTICLE 8
DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE
(1) There
shall be constituted, in accordance with the provisions of the Second Schedule
to this Law, a Disciplinary Committee (hereafter in this Law referred to as
“the Committee”) with the following functions –
(a) to maintain the
standards of the profession ;
(b) to reconcile all
differences between solicitors on matters of practice and, where necessary, to
give a ruling ;
(c) to consider complaints
from third parties concerning the conduct of solicitors in the course of
practice.
(2) Where
it appears to the Committee, that the circumstances so justify, the Committee
may –
(a) reprimand a solicitor ;
or
(b) censure a solicitor,
either informally or before a full meeting of the Committee ; or
(c) refer a matter to the
Royal Court in accordance with sub-paragraph (3) of this Article.
(3) If
a complaint is made against a solicitor which appears to the Committee to be of
such gravity that a reprimand or censure would be inadequate, the Committee
shall, after co-opting two other solicitors, investigate the complaint and, if
the Committee decides that the matter should be brought to the attention of the
Royal Court, it shall make a report to Her Majesty’s Attorney General who
shall present the case for decision to the Royal Court.
ARTICLE 9
QUALIFICATION FOR APPOINTMENT AS JUDICIAL GREFFIER
(1) With
effect from the making of the first rules under Article 2 of this Law, the
essential qualification for the appointment of a person to the office of
Judicial Greffier shall be modified so as to include
a person who has passed the qualifying examination for solicitors held for the
purposes of this Law.
(2) Accordingly,
in Article 2 of the Departments of the Judiciary and Legislature (Jersey) Law,
1965 –
(a) in paragraph (6) the
words “or Judicial Greffier” shall be
deleted ; and
(b) after paragraph (6) there
shall be added the following paragraph
“(7) It
is an essential qualification for the appointment of a person to the office of
Judicial Greffier that he be an advocate or a
solicitor or that he has passed the qualifying examination for solicitors held
in accordance with the provisions of the Solicitors (Jersey) Law, 1971.”
ARTICLE 10
RULES OF COURT
(1) The
power to make rules of court under the Royal Court (Jersey) Law, 1948 shall include a power to make rules for the
purposes of Article 2 and paragraph (1) of Article 5 of this Law.
(2) The
provisions of paragraph (1) of Article 3 of the Official Publications (Jersey)
Law, 1960 shall apply to rules made under the provisions of
this Article as it applies to enactments mentioned in that paragraph and accordingly,
as soon as may be after such rules are made, the Judicial Greffier
shall transmit a certified copy thereof to the Greffier
of the States.
(3) The
first rules made under Article 2 and Article 5 of this Law shall not come into
force until a period of not less than one year has elapsed from the date on
which they are made and a similar delay shall apply to the coming into force of
any subsequent rules amending or replacing rules made under those Articles.
ARTICLE 11
REPEAL AND SAVING
(1) The
“Loi (1891) sur l’Admission des Ecrivains”, the
“Loi (1900) (Amendement)
sur l’Admission des
Ecrivains” and the “Loi (1954) (Amendement) sur l’Admission des
Ecrivains” are hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding
the provisions of paragraph (1) of this Article, until such time as the first
rules made under Articles 2 and 5 of this Law come into force, the examination
referred to in Articles 6 and 7 of the “Loi
(1891) sur l’Admission
des Ecrivains”, as amended, shall be
deemed to be the examination referred to in paragraph (3) of Article 1 of this
Law and the examinations specified in the Schedule to the Admission of
Solicitors (Preliminary Examinations (Jersey) Regulations, 1955 shall be deemed to constitute the appropriate
educational requirements for the purposes of sub-paragraph (1) of Article 5 of
this Law.
ARTICLE 12
CITATION
This Law may be cited as the Solicitors (Jersey) Law, 1971.
FIRST SCHEDULE
(Article 7)
OATH OF OFFICE OF SOLICITORS OF THE ROYAL COURT
Vous jurez et promettez par la foi et serment que vous
devez à Dieu, que bien et fidèlement
vous exercerez la
profession d’écrivain près les Tribunaux de ce pays sous notre
Souveraine Dame Elizabeth Deux,
par la Grâce de Dieu Reine du Royaume Uni de la Grande Bretagne et de l’Irlande du Nord et de Ses autres Royaumes
et Territoires, Chef du Commonwealth, Défenseur de la Foi, la Majesté de laquelle vous reconnoissez sous Dieu, suprême
Gouverneur en tous ses Royaumes, Provinces et Territoires, quittant et renonçant à toutes autres supériorités
foraines et étrangères
; vous garderez le droit de Sa Majesté et de ses sujets, et soutiendrez l’honneur et gloire de Dieu et de sa pure parole ; vous défendrez et maintiendrez
les lois et usages, privilèges,
franchises, coutumes et libertés
de l’Isle, vous opposant à quiconque les voudroit enfreindre. Vous n’entreprendrez ni ne soutiendrez
aucune cause ou affaire qui
vous paroîtra dénuée de tout droit,
ou proposée avec méchanceté. Vous ne controuverez aucuns faits, si
vos cliens ne vous les ont
affirmés pour vrais.
Vous ne proposerez
ni alléguerez aucun fait, coutume ni usage, que vous
sçaurez être contraires à droit et
justice ; et si aucune
chose touche le droit de Sa
Majesté, vous en informerez les Officiers de la Couronne, et le maintiendrez. Vous ne ferez
aucun marché ni contrat avec vos cliens d’aucune
cause ou affaire contentieuse,
ni de partie d’icelle. Vous vous contenterez de gages et salaires raisonnables, et assisterez aux veuves, pauvres et orphelins. Et finalement vous vous conformerez selon le bon avis de Monsieur le Bailli,
ou de Monsieur le Commis-Bailli,
ou de Monsieur le Lieutenant-Bailli,
ou de Messieurs de Justice.
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SECOND SCHEDULE
(Article 8)
DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE
(1) The
Committee shall consist of five members, elected by absolute majority at a
general meeting of practising solicitors.
(2) The
election shall take place every three years and existing members of the
Committee shall be eligible for re-election.
(3) The
Committee shall elect a President and a Secretary.
(4) Every
complaint against a solicitor shall be forwarded to the President who shall
convene the Committee at the earliest opportunity to consider the matter.
(5) Except
for the purposes of paragraph (3) of Article 8 of the Law, the Committee shall
be lawfully constituted and may conduct any business which it is in their power
to conduct if three members, including the President or Secretary, are present.
E.J.M. POTTER
Greffier of the States.