The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

N EWS

MARCH 1996

Bloomer - The Supreme Court Decides

Alison Bloomer & Others v Law Society of Ireland, Ireland and the Attorney General - No. 329/95 The Sup r eme Cou r t. The following a re extracts f r om the ex-tempore j u d gme nt of the Sup r eme Cou rt delivered on 6 Fe b r u a r y, 1996, by Hamilton, CJ. This is an appeal brought by the plaintiffs/appellants against the judgment and order made in the High Court by Miss Justice Laffoy in proceedings in which the plaintiffs had claimed a number of declarations and had claimed damages for alleged breach of duty, conspiracy and mala fides and so on in respect of the officers and members of the Society. The learned trial judge decided, having considered the matter at length and having had regard to all the evidence, that there was indirect discrimination against the plaintiffs by virtue of the provisions of this regulation and that she held it to be invalid. There is no appeal by any party against her findings in this regard and it is true to say that the judgment having been delivered, the terms of the judgment were accepted by the Law Society, the various officers thereof and the Education Committee who proceeded to deal with the matter in accordance with the terms of the judgment given by the learned trial judge. It appears that each of the plaintiffs were by letter dated 31 October, 1995, informed of the attitude of the Law Society and it was clearly indicated to them that they were eligible to make an application to the Law Society on the same basis as the graduates of the universities in this State.

profession and seeking admission to it. All of these are matters of legitimate concern and regard being had thereto is not in any way and could not be in any way construed as malicious or invidious or in any way in bad faith. I would certainly like to make it clear and I am sure I am speaking on behalf of the members of the Court that the Court accepts the bona fides of the Law Society in this matter. When we come to the hearing of the appeal, apart from the suggestion made by Dr. White with regard to the form of declaration that it would be open to us to make, having regard to the findings of the learned High Court judge, the basic issue of this appeal can be identified as the question of costs. Now with regard to the costs of the Law Society which were awarded against the plaintiffs and the failure to award costs to the plaintiffs, the court has approached this matter in what it hopes and believes is a pragmatic manner and is satisfied that the plaintiffs are entitled to an order for the costs of the proceedings in the High Court limited to the costs attributable to the issue of determining the validity of Regulation 15 of the Society's regulations and doing the best it can and allowing for certain flexibility on either side, the court fixes that as reasonable period of eight days. With regard to the costs of the appeal, numerous issues were raised in the notice of appeal, numerous issues were referred to in the submissions made by the legal representatives of the plaintiffs but the fundamental issue was the question of costs. In these circumstances, the court considers it reasonable to award to the plaintiffs/ appellants half the costs of the appeal before this court but will disallow any or

The Hon. Mr. Liam Hamilton, Chief justice sought was granted to them in the first instance by the finding of the learned trial judge that the provisions of Regulation 15 were invalid having regard to European law, the acceptance of the Law Society of that finding and their proceedings to take steps to ensure that there was no discrimination against the plaintiffs in respect of any applications they might make to the Law Society for exemption in accordance with the now invalid and stricken Regulation 15. It is unfortunate that, as I said, this attitude developed in respect of the serious issue, this issue which was of considerable importance to the plaintiffs and indeed many students in a similar position and that the case had not been dealt with in a calmer, more relaxed atmosphere without unfounded allegations being made against the integrity and honour of members of the Law Society who are faced with a very difficult task, faced with the situation of demands for admission to

places, faced with problems of increased numbers in the legal

It is quite clear from that attitude that everything that the plaintiffs had

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