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GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER 1979
and where necessary stronger action has been taken to ensure that the certificates are
brought up to date. As a result only twenty-two are now seriously in arrears and all these
are under active consideration by the Committee. Members are reminded that where an
Accountant's Certificate is in arrears, the Society will not issue the Practising Certificate
for the current year and this holds very severe implications for members. Members will,
therefore, ensure that the fullest steps are taken to see that their Accountant's Certificate
is up to date and when their audit is finished they should check with their accountants to
see that the certificate has been sent in. Any member experiencing difficulty in this regard
should refer to the Society and again the Society is deeply indebted to its staff and in
particular the services of Mr. Connolly and Mr. Healy who deal with this area for the
Committee and who have both proved most helpful, not only to the Committee but also to
people seeking the assistance of the Society with regard to these matters.
3.5
The Committee has also been paying very considerable attention to the up-dating
of the solicitors' roll with a view to establishing with certainty the names of all solicitors
who are practising in the State. Various difficulties arose because of people changing jobs
or getting married or dying and during the year a major effort has been made to up-date
the roll. It would be hoped that this work would be completed by early next year and
already 178 people have been discovered who did not hold Practising Certificates. All
these have been written to and arrangements had been made to collect arrears. It is a
popular misconception that a person does not require a Practising Certificate if they are
not appearing in Court but merely working in die office. This is not correct and any
solicitor who is doing the work of a solicitor is required to take out a Practising Certificate
and is liable to prosecution if the certificate is not taken out for the current year.
3.6
The Committee has held numerous meetings during the year and, as Chairman, I
am indebted for the assistance and support of my colleagues in the completion of work
which is both time consuming and onerous and particular thanks are also to be returned
to Mr. Ivers, the Director General, to Mr. Doyle and Mr. Burke, to Mr. Connolly and to
Mr. Healy, and to all the secretarial staff which assisted the Committee in their work
during the year.
4.1
I am happy to say that progress has been made in the building up of the
compensation fund during the year. After payment of the contribution towards the over-
heads of the Society, the surplus of income over expenditure was £104,980. The fund
now stands at £768,654. Claims during the year only totalled £1,937 and refunds
achieved the considerable total of £29,936.
4.2
The policy of the Committee is to spend a lot of time and effort both on the part
of the members of the Committee and in particular of the officials of the Society in main-
taining, protecting, administering the fund. In previous years it was the policy to bring in
outside accountants if a solicitor had a financial complaint against him. This work is now
dealt with by the officers of the Society and a considerable portion of the time of Mr.
Ivers, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Healy, Mr. Burke and Mrs. Fallon are spent following-up the
claims, pursuing Accountants' Certificates in arrears, pursuing Practising Certificates in
arrears, investigations, daily collection and banking of compensation fund receipts,
servicing of the Interview Board, Registrar's, Disciplinary and High Court work and all
book-keeping and accounting in connection therewith. The policy of the compensation
fund is, therefore, that a section of each of the salaries and the overheads relating thereto
should be charged against the fund and the charge this year amounted to 5.2% of the fund
or the sum of £40,000. This is a lesser figure than that applied by the Scottish or English
Law Societies and is a policy which is endorsed by the Council of the Law Society and
having regard to the low level of claims over the last few years has proved very beneficial
to the Society and the Committee is indebted for the excellent work carried out by the
before-mentioned staff members.
4.3
An item of irritation to members is the feeling of the Council which has lasted for
a considerable period that payment will not be made agdnst a solicitor who has defaulted
unless all legal remedies have been exhausted. This includes having a judgment marked
and having the solicitor adjudicated a bankrupt. It should be stressed that this has proved
a very helpful rule from the Society's point of view because of refunds obtained at a later
date. However, it is appreciated that this is irritating when there is a small claim against a
Solicitor and it is not worth while having the solicitor adjudicated a bankrupt for the
COMPENSATION
COMMITTEE
Thomas D. Shaw
Chairman
Andrew J. Donnelly
Thomas J. Fitzpatrick
John P. Hooper
Carmel S. Killeen
Patrick O'Connor
Michael V. O'Mahony
Laurence K. Shields
Andrew F. Smyth
Moya Quinlan
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