Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/671

 630

cap in hand, and await their pleasure — or run the risk of having your paper returned on any sign of impatience. It is safe to say that it would be a revela tion to those who may wonder at these things, could they but attend a few consultations at the chambers of one of the leading men. To save time, the solicitor will perhaps have pre pared a short epitome for present use, in ad dition to the more or less lengthy " instruc tions " which were delivered days ago. As likely as not, this will never come out of his pocket, a casual observation from the great man showing that he " knows all about that," and more — knew it, in fact, before the case began. The all-round knowledge of the world which is stored up in the mind of a leading Q. C. is an eye-opener : it is that which you have to pay so heavily for. No article on this subject would be com plete without a reference to the peculiar — probably unique — relations subsisting be tween barristers and those whose interests they represent. You may take papers to " a gentleman of the long robe," and obtain his opinion — and then you may snap your fingers at him, and refuse to pay. He has no remedy at law. Of course, you would not do it again, either with him or any one of his fraternity —you wouldn't get the op portunity. Except with a well-known firm of solicitors, or one with whom counsel may have a running account, with half-yearly settlements, the money is left with the papers. Should

the amount tendered be considered inade quate, the clerk intimates the fact to the so licitor. Often enough, the fee is not marked by the solicitors, but left to the barrister's clerk. One never corresponds with the prin cipal about fees. He, theoretically, is quite above such mundane matters — merely work ing from platonic motives; his sordid clerk is there to protect him from being plucked, and to collect a commensurate honorarium. To maintain an equipoise in this otherwise very one-sided arrangement, an effectual, though refreshingly simple, law exists, that a barrister is under no obligation to attend to any work which you may take to him — and pay for in advance. He may return your papers, and pocket the fee; or, worse still, he may go into court, and make the most fatal and idiotic arrangement binding upon your client — and you have no legal remedy, such as a layman has against a solicitor. But here, too, the case is highly hypothetical, and in an experience of twenty years, I have never known real harm to ensue from it. The laws of business and common-sense in effect govern this, as all other professions; and a barrister who sought to take advantage of his theoretical rights, would doubtless have but little possibility of repeating it. The whole thing seems absurd; but it works well in practice, and probably neither barristers, solicitors, nor clients, if canvassed, would care to alter it.