The Gazette 1990

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1990

Practising Certificate limited to

enable the respondent practise

only whilst under the supervi-

sion and in the employment of

another solicitor to be approved

of by the Law Society.

Costs to the Society

Censured, fined and costs

* Fined and costs

Censured and costs

Petitions struck out with

costs to the Society

Adjourned generally

Adjourned

Stay on Order - adjourned

for six months

*Fines ranged from £50 to

£1,000.

Cases adjourned by the Presi-

dent of the High Court last year7

Name of respondent struck

off the Roll of Solicitors

Remitted to the Disciplinary

Committee

Costs awarded to the

Society

Awaiting presentation to the

High Court

I would like to take this oppor-

tunity to distinguish the Dis-

ciplinary Committee's porocedures

from those of the Law Society

when dealing with complaints. The

Disciplinary Committee is an in-

dependent statutory committee

and its procedures are governed by

the Solicitors' Acts 1954 and

1960. Its members are appointed

by the President of the High Court

to investigate allegations of

misconduct made against solicitors

either by the Incorporated Law

Society of Ireland or by members

of the public.

There are two avenues open to

the profession as well as members

of the public if they wish to make

an allegation of misconduct against

a solicitor. They may do so either

by writing to the Registrar's Com-

mittee of the Incorporated Law

Society of Ireland or they may

make a direct application to the

Disciplinary Committee by way of

affidavit. Should this latter course

be taken the Clerk to the Commit-

tee will forward the appropriate

forms and explain the procedures

to the complainant.

The Law Society's Registrar's

Committee investigates complaints

made directly to the Society by

way of correspondence. In the

event that it wishes to report a

matter to the Disciplinary Com-

mittee it may do so by completing

the necessary application form and

affidavit.

Any person or body may make a

direct application to the Dis-

ciplinary Committee for an inquiry

into the conduct of a solicitor on

the grounds of alleged misconduct.

The majority of the Committee's

findings this year related to the

area of conveyancing. The com-

plaints in particular related to the

failure of the solicitor-respondents

to carry out routine procedures

such as stamping documents and

lodging them in the Land Registry.

Failure to communicate with

clients and/or the Law Society or

explain a situation to a colleague

were also a major feature of com-

plaints brought before the Commit-

tee. As Chairman of the Commit-

tee, I would urge all practitioners to

ensure that such simple tasks as

stamping documents etc. are car-

ried out as a matter of course.

It is the Committee's experience

that a key element in the preven-

tion of complaints is communica-

tion. In the majority of cases which

come before the Committee there

is always a complaint of failure to

communicate with a client and/or

the Society. It is the Committee's

experience that had a solicitor ex-

plained the situation to a client or

the Society the complaint may not

have been pursued. Therefore it is

in the interests of both the client

and the practitioner that there is

good and open communication bet-

ween them.

During the year Mr. Gerald

Hickey retired from the Committee.

Mr. Hickey was appointed to the

Committee in November 1980 and

I would like to thank him for his

hard work and dedication to the

Committee.

Mr. Terence Dixon was ap-

pointed to the Committee for a

period of five years from the 1st

June 1989.

My own period as Chairman of

the Committee has been extended

by the President of the High Court

for a further five years from 1st

February 1989.

I would like to thank all the

members of the Committee for

their hard work and note that while

the Committee met less frequent-

ly this year than in the previous

year, it dealt with the same number

of new applications.

Dated this 6th day of December

1QftQ

Walter Beatty

Chairman

f,—

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