The Council
of the Law Society conducted a survey in June this year in order to gauge for
itself the sentiments of the practitioners in respect of the second review of
the conveyancing fixed scale fees. The current Conveyancing Fees Review
Committee is chaired by Mr Goh Joon Seng. Amongst the many questions presented
was the all important question of ‘Should
the current scale fees be maintained, modified or freed?’ The
results were not unexpected: 68% of the respondents felt that the scale should
be maintained whilst at the other extreme, only 7% felt that it should be freed.
Interestingly enough, the results were about the same when a survey was
conducted in 1994 during the tenure of the First Conveyancing Fees Review
Committee headed by Justice Chao Hick Tin.
This time
around, a new question was polled: ‘Should
there be Separate Representation?’ The
results of an overwhelming 75% for ‘Yes’
showed a shift from the past trend.
During straw polls taken at two previous dialogue sessions, the sentiments for
or against separate representation was evenly divided. It would appear that the
mood has changed. Although the number of respondents have increased in this
survey, it is by no means conclusive of the sentiments of the members. It would
have been preferred if we had twice the number of respondents. Nevertheless,
Council will consider the input of the respondents as deemed in the public
interest when submitting its paper to the to the Second Conveyancing
Derrick Wong
Ong Eu
The Law
Society of Singapore
