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SOLICITORS (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1976 - SECT 64



64.(1) For the purposes of this Article there shall be a committee to be known
as the "Non-contentious Costs Committee" (in this Part referred to as "the
Committee") and consisting of the following persons

(a)two judges of the [High Court or the Court of Appeal] of whom the Lord
Chief Justice may be one, appointed by the Lord Chief Justice;

(b)the President of the Lands Tribunal;

(c)two solicitors appointed by the Council; and

(d)subject to the proviso to paragraph (2), the Registrar of Titles.

(2) The Committee acting by any three or more of the members thereof (the Lord
Chief Justice or another judge of the [High Court or the Court of Appeal]
being one) may make orders prescribing and regulating in such manner as they
think fit the remuneration of solicitors in respect of non-contentious
business:

Provided that the Registrar of Titles shall be deemed to be a member of the
Committee for the purpose only of prescribing and regulating the remuneration
of solicitors in respect of business under the Land Registration Act (Northern
Ireland) 1970 or any enactment repealed or proposed to be repealed by that
Act.

(3) The Lord Chief Justice may appoint an officer of the Supreme Court to act
as Clerk to the Committee.

(4) The Committee may refer any question arising in the exercise of their
functions to any person appearing to them to be likely to assist them in
reaching a conclusion thereon for advice, investigation or report and the
Committee or any such person may receive evidence from any source appearing to
the Committee or, as the case may be, to such person to be relevant.

(5) The costs of any reference made by the Committee under paragraph (4) shall
be defrayed by the Society.

(6) Before any order is made under this Article, the Clerk to the Committee
shall cause a draft thereof to be sent to the Council, and the Committee
shall, before making the order, consider any observations in writing submitted
to them by the Council within one month of the sending to them of the draft
and may then make the order either in the form of the draft or with such
alterations or additions as they may think fit.

(7) An order under this Article may, as regards the mode of remuneration,
prescribe that it shall be according to a scale of rates of commission or
percentage, varying or not in different classes of business, or by a gross
sum, or by a fixed sum for each document prepared or perused, without regard
to length, or in any other mode, or partly in one mode and partly in another,
and may regulate the amount of remuneration with reference to all or any of
the following, among other, considerations, that is to say

(a)the position of the party for whom the solicitor is concerned in the
business, that is, whether as vendor or purchaser, lessor or lessee, mortgagor
or mortgagee, and the like;

(b)the place where, and the circumstances in which, the business or any part
thereof is transacted;

(c)the amount of the capital money or rent to which the business relates;

(d)the skill, labour, specialised knowledge and responsibility involved
therein on the part of the solicitor;

(e)the complexity, importance, difficulty, rarity or urgency of the questions
raised;

(f)the number and importance of the documents prepared or perused; and

(g)the time expended by the solicitor.

(8) An order under this Article may authorise and regulate

(a)the taking by a solicitor from his client of security for payment of any
remuneration, to be ascertained by taxation or otherwise, which may become due
to him under any such order; and

(b)the allowance of interest.

(9) So long as an order made under this Article is in operation, taxation of
bills of costs of solicitors in respect of non-contentious business shall,
subject to the provisions of Article 69, be regulated by that order.

Para.(10) rep. by 1979 NI 12 art.11(2) sch.5

(11) All orders made by the Committee shall be laid before the Assembly by the
Head of the Department of Finance and shall be subject to negative resolution.



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