The Gazette 1993

IMN AGE

GAZETTE

MN JUNE 1993

The Profession in the Media

people of relatively modest means and called on the Minister for Finance to abandon the tax. Des Rooney of the Law Society's Taxation Committee was interviewed on the RTE News at One programme. The RTE Today at Five current affairs programme recorded the opposition of many of the participating organisations as well as briefly interviewing the President of the Law Society, Raymond Monahan, and the President of the IFA, Alan Gillis. The press conference and a joint statement issued by the Alliance against Probate Tax were extensively reported in all of the national daily papers on Tuesday, 1 June, 1993. A number of feature articles published during the month dealt with issues of concern to the profession. Following the settlement of the Kenneth Best case, Gene Kerrigan wrote an opinion column in the Sunday Independent, in which he praised the solicitors and barristers on Mr. Best's legal team, who had been prepared to take on the case without any prospect of remuneration if it failed, but went on to criticise the lack of legal aid, the lack of access to basic information, the lack of medical assessments paid for by the State, lawyers who charged £2,000- £3,000 a day and courts choked with cases. "Should anybody's rights depend on the personal strength and staying power of litigants and the kindness of lawyers?" he asked. In a one-page feature article entitled "Injury claims: why the jury is still out," in the Irish Independent of 26 May, 1993, a spokesperson for the Society pointed out that if it were not for no foal - no fee arrangements, cases such as the Best case would never have a chance of proceeding. | A number of news items throughout the i month and a one-page feature article in the Irish Independent on 2 June, 1993, focused on the delays caused by a j ( Continued on page 173)

Conference of the Society and his remarks were reported in The Irish Times of 21 May, 1993, and he was interviewed on the RTE "Morning Ireland" programme of that day. Raymond Monahan said that Minister Brennan was responding to direct pressure from insurance interests to the detriment of the ordinary citizen. He said it would be dangerous and wrong to interfere with a judge's discretion about the amount of compensation that could be awarded and he questioned the validity of the Minister's comparisons with other EC countries. The President of the Southern Law Association, Justin Condon, was quoted in the Irish Independent of 23 May, 1993, as saying that the increased costs of litigation were due not to the growth in personal injuries claims but rather to delays and inadequate resources in the courts system which added to expense. In his address to the Annual Conference of the Society, the President of the Law Society, Raymond Monahan, criticised the new probate tax introduced in the Finance Bill, 1993, as being unfair and indiscriminate. He added that it would cause huge legal difficulties for the public while providing little financial advantage to the Government. His comments were reported in The Irish Times of 22 May, 1993. A joint initiative by the Law Society and the Irish Farmers' Association to form an alliance against the probate tax, comprising ten representative organisations, was reported in the Farmers' Journal of 29 May, 1993 and the Irish Independent and Daily Star of i 31 May, 1993. A joint press conference was held on 31 May, 1993 and throughout that day the President of the Society, Raymond Monahan, was interviewed on RTE News Radio and ! TV news bulletins in which he pointed out the implications of the tax for Probate Tax

The first in a new series of monthly columns examining issues relating to the profession as reported in the media. The new probate tax and a proposal to cap personal injuries awards were the main issues which engaged the participation of the profession in the media during the month of May. Personal Injuries The first indication of a proposal by the Minister of State for Commerce and Technology, Seamus Brennan , to introduce legislation to place a cap on the amount that could be awarded in personal injuries claims, was in an article in the Sunday Tribune of 9 May, 1993. The article referred to a study by the Department of Enterprise and Employment which claimed that Irish awards exceeded the EC average by 70%. The Minister was quoted as saying he would not introduce the cap unless insurance companies gave a guarantee that they would in return reduce insurance premiums. The Minister outlined his proposals again in a speech to the Irish Insurance Federa- tion on 18 May. The Law Society responded to his proposals in an inter- view on the RTE News at One programme in which the Director General of the Society, Noel Ryan, questioned the dubious constitutionality of the Minister's proposal and criticised his approach as being too narrow in that he sought to concentrate solely on one aspect of insurance costs i.e. personal injury awards. Noel Ryan suggested that if the Government was concerned about achieving European norms they should think about introducing a European standard of civil legal aid here. Minister Brennan's proposals and Noel Ryan's criticisms were reported in the Evening Press of that day and the Irish Independent of the following day. The President of the Law Society, Raymond Monahan, also addressed the issue in his speech to the Annual

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