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36 1954

SOLICITORS ACT, 1954

PART VII.

Accounts of Solicitors.

Regulations for accounts.

66. —(1) Regulations made with the concurrence of the Chief Justice shall make provision with respect to the following matters:

(a) the opening and keeping by solicitors of accounts at banks for clients' moneys and for moneys of any trust of which the sole trustee is a solicitor or the trustees are a solicitor with a partner, clerk or servant of his or with more than one of such persons;

(b) the keeping by solicitors of accounts containing particulars of and information as to moneys received, held or paid by them for or on account of clients;

(c) the keeping by solicitors of accounts containing particulars of and information as to moneys received, held or paid by them for or on account of any trust of which the sole trustee is a solicitor or the trustees are a solicitor with a partner, clerk or servant of his or with more than one of such persons;

(d) enforcing compliance with the regulations;

(e) ascertaining whether the regulations have been complied with;

(f) the delegation by the Society to the Disciplinary Committee of any such power of enforcement or ascertainment.

(2) The provisions contained in regulations for the purposes of this section for ascertaining whether the regulations have been complied with may include, in particular, provisions requiring solicitors to furnish certificates by duly qualified accountants that the regulations have been complied with.

(3) Regulations for the purposes of this section shall not apply in relation to—

(a) a solicitor in the full-time service of the State, or

(b) any solicitor who is in the part-time service of the State, so far as regards moneys received, held or paid by him in the course of such service.

Provisions with respect to banking companies.

67. —(1) A banking company shall not, in connection with any transaction on an account of a solicitor kept with them or with another banking company (other than an account kept by a solicitor as trustee for a specified beneficiary), incur a liability or be under an obligation to make inquiry or be deemed to have knowledge of a right to money paid or credited to the account which they would not incur, be under or be deemed to have in the case of an account kept by a person entitled absolutely to the money paid or credited thereto.

Nothing in this subsection shall relieve a banking company from any liability or obligation which they would be under apart from this Act.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, a banking company which keeps an account of a solicitor for moneys of clients, or of any trust of which the sole trustee is a solicitor or the trustees are a solicitor with a partner, clerk or servant of his or with one or more of such persons, shall not, in respect of a liability of the solicitor to the banking company, not being a liability in connection with that account, have or obtain any recourse or right, whether by way of set-off, counter-claim, charge or otherwise, against moneys standing to the credit of that account.

Nothing in this subsection shall deprive a banking company of a right, existing at the time when the first regulations made for the purposes of section 66 of this Act come into operation, in respect of moneys previously deposited with such banking company.

Priority of claims to clients' moneys.

68. —Where a solicitor keeps in a bank an account for moneys of clients or of any trust of which the sole trustee is a solicitor or the trustees are a solicitor with a partner, clerk or servant of his or with more than one of such persons, neither the State nor any person shall have or obtain any recourse or right against moneys standing to the credit of that account in respect of a claim or right against the solicitor until all proper claims of the clients, or of the persons interested in the trust, against those moneys have been fully satisfied.