The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

APRIL /MAY 1996

very mild criticisms, primarily three

suggestions for improvements, which

it contained.

All of the newspaper reports made

liberal use of the statistics in the lay

members' report, usually recording

the total number of complaints made

to the Society in the year in question

at 1,350 although omitting the fact

that nearly 20% of these where

inadmissible (on such grounds as that

they were complaints about barristers

or judges and not about solicitors).

"Complaints against solicitors total

1,350" was the headline in the

Irish

Independent.

"Law and disorder as

clients complain" was the

Daily Star

headline while the

Examiner

chose the

rather confusing if not downright

misleading "Law Society backs 81%

of complaints".

The

Irish Times

led with "Law

Society to improve complaints

procedure - extra measures to protect

clients at risk". By way of balance,

however, all except the

Daily Star

recorded the estimate by the Society's

Director General that less than half of

one per cent of matters dealt with by

solicitors gave rise to complaints by

clients.

The

Irish Times

and

Irish Independent

also recorded the lay members'

unreserved acceptance of the integrity

of the Society's complaints handling

system and quoted

Ken Murphy

on the

Society's commitment to protect the

public against the small percentage of

solicitors who fail to maintain the

highest professional standards in their

dealings with clients.

(c) 'Pistols at Dawn' with the

Doctors on

Morning

Ireland

It is the end of a working day and the

Law Society Director General is going

out the front door of Blackhall Place

when he is called back to take a phone

call. The

Morning Ireland

office is on

the line. "Have you heard what the

Irish Hospital Consultants are saying

about the solicitors profession?"

A little over twelve hours later and

Ken Murphy

is sitting in the

Morning

Ireland

studio beside

Finbarr

Fitzpatrick,

Secretary General of the

Irish Hospital Consultants

Association.

David Hanley

begins the

interview with a quote from the IHCA

press release. "Ambulance Chasing

Lawyers whose billboard publicity

campaigns, full page advertising and

self promotion as experts in medical

litigation entice the public to enter

medical malpractice claims regardless

of their merit are costing the tax payer

£20m per year . . ."

"The IHCA are engaged in something

of a scatter-gun attack about the

"crass exploitation and misleading of

the public by the maverick tactics of

some solicitors". Mr Fitzpatrick

alleges, without indicating his source

or evidence, that legal costs in this

jurisdiction are four times higher than

in the UK and that the medical

profession here is four times more

likely to be sued, although his main

objection is to solicitors advertising

for compensation cases and generally

"encouraging litigation".

David Hanley

turns to

Ken Murphy

who replies with feeling. "Solicitors

are very disappointed and surprised at

this kind of tabloid attack by a

responsible group of people like the

medical profession. Frankly, solicitors

are sick and tired of being made

scapegoats by doctors for the

problems of medical negligence. If

there is a high level of medical

negligence claims it is because there

is a high level of injuries caused by

negligent medical practitioners. A key

point is that the cases are not invented

by solicitors. They cannot be

proceeded with without a written

opinion from an independent medical

expert to the effect that there are good

grounds for believing there has been

medical negligence on the facts of the

case".

Hanley

presses on the advertising.

"Does it not constitute incitement?"

Murphy

- only less than half of one

per cent of the firms in Dublin city

and county take the large-scale ads in

the Yellow Pages which are being

complained of. I do not know how this

can be said to have any substantial

effect on the number of medical

negligence claims".

Finbarr Fitzpatrick

counters with

more statistics. In ten years a

consultant's annual medical

malpractice insurance subscription has

gone from £800 up to £30,000. The

Law Society should review its policy

on advertising which is contributing to

a waste of taxpayers money and

putting some consultants out of

business. Medical review panels

should, at least as an initial step,

replace the courts.

David Hanley

allows

Ken Murphy

the

final word as follows "if there is an

increase in medical negligence claims,

it is not because a small number of

solicitors are now advertising. It is

because we are a more mature society,

less deferential to the medical

profession and more likely to question

when things go wrong".

On return to Blackhall Place, the

"reviews" in the form of telephone

and fax messages from members of

the legal profession are

complimentary but from some

members of the medical profession are

bordering on the abusive. The

interview is essentially reprised on the

telephone that afternoon for the

Examiner

where it is published the

next day, 20 April 1996, under the

headline "Lawyers Reject 'Ambulance

Chaser' Claim".

David Hanley

would say, "quite".

•

Younger

Members

Commi t tee

Questionnaire

Attention!!!

All those qualified within

the last five years

You will by now have received your

questionnaire from the Younger

Members Committee concerning such

issues as salaries, employment etc.

If you have not had the time to

complete and return same - please

do so. We very much want to hear

your views.

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