The Gazette 1993

APRIL . 1993

GAZETTE

Council Decides to Appoint Lay Observers

which functions of the Council had been delegated under Section 73 of the Solicitors Act, 1954, they could be given the right to receive the agenda and to participate in the deliberations of the committee. They could also be given the right to make recommendations to the Society from time to time and could also make reports to the Society and to the Minister for Justice. The Council fully endorsed the President's suggestion and it was agreed to proceed with the proposal, subject only to drawing up appropriate terms of appointment for the observers containing safeguards concerning confidentiality. As we go to press, work on drawing up the terms has been completed and the nominations of the Minister for Justice are awaited. Each Lay Observer will be appointed for a period of one year and the appointment may be renewed for further periods. Each Lay Observer will have the right to attend all meetings of the Registrar's Committee, to receive the agenda and all relevant documentation in advance of the meeting, and to participate fully in the deliberations of the Committee. In the event of a vote being taken on any issue, however, neither Lay Observer will have the right to vote. Terms of Appointment

The Council of the Law Society has approved the appointment of two Lay Observers to the Registrar's Committee - the statutory committee of the Society which carries out the initial investigation of complaints against solicitors made by members of the public. The proposal for Lay Observers, which was made by the President of the Society, Raymond Monahan, was approved by the Council at its meeting on 12 March last. The Council agreed that the two Lay Observers should be independently nominated and the President decided to ask the Minister for Justice to nominate the two observers. In presenting the proposal to the Council, the President of the Society argued the need for a more transparent system of complaints- handling so that there could be full public validation and acceptance of the manner in which the profession dealt with complaints by members of the public. The President said that the perception existed that, because complaints were dealt with behind closed doors by practising solicitors who were members of the Council, complainants did not get fair treatment. The profession would never be able to counter this criticism successfully, he said, until it was in a position to demonstrate publicly that its complaints-handling procedures were fair and above board. He pointed out that the Law Society had already accepted the principle of lay scrutiny when it had agreed, in principle, with the appointment of a legal adjudicator as provided for by the Solicitors Bill. Raymond Monahan suggested that, while the two lay members could not, strictly speaking, be members of the Registrar's Committee, because it was a committee of the Society to

complaints-handling machinery of the Society. At least once in every year the two Lay Observers, acting jointly, will have the right to furnish a report to the Society giving their assessment of the manner in which the Society has in the past twelve months exercised its functions in relation to complaints against solicitors. The report would have to be in a format suitable for publication by the Society but it cannot identify any individual complainant or solicitor. information obtained by them in the course of exercising their functions and will not be permitted to divulge information concerning the affairs of any complainant or solicitor without the prior written consent of the Law Society. Other issues raised at March Meeting The March Council meeting also considered a survey recently despatched by the Costs Committee, the Finance Act, 1992, the reintroduction of the Solicitors (Amendment) Bill, 1991, and a recent article in a Sunday newspaper. Article in Sunday Business Post The Council, discussed an article entitled 'A Profession under Siege' which was published in the Sunday Business Post of 7 March. A number of Council members were highly critical of the article and the comments attributed to James Osborne. Some members defended the right of practitioners to comment publicly on matters of concern to the profession. At the end of its The Lay Observers will be obliged to treat as strictly confidential any

The Lay Observers will have the right to furnish a report to the Society.

The Lay Observers will also have the right to make recommendations from time to time to the Society about the manner in which the Registrar's Committee has dealt with complaints, or the general adequacy and fairness of the

discussion, the Council agreed that the President should write to Mr. Osborne conveying the views I expressed.

89