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GAZETTE
JUNE 1996
aware or ought to have been aware that
his workload carried a real risk that he
would have a breakdown, then the
defendants were not negligent in failing
to avert the breakdown of October
1974."
The Court of Appeal held in
Petch
that
there has been no breach of duty by the
defendants.
In Walker; the employer was held to
be under a duty of care not to cause
the employee psychiatric damage by
reason of the volume or character
of the work which the employee
was required to perform.
In
Walker
v.
Northumberland
County
Council [
1995] 1 All ER 737
Colman J
in the Queen's Bench Division held, in
what may become a leading case, that
The Education of
Solicitors for the New
Millennium
Continued
from page
139
(3) the establishment of a set of written
standards which will govern the
content, aims and objectives of the
new Higher Diploma in Professional
Legal Practice course. The course
will include (a) the
compulsory
subjects
of conveyancing, wills,
probate and administration of
estates, business and commercial law
and practice, litigation and advocacy
and (b) the pervasive subjects which
will include professional conduct,
solicitors' accounts, practice
management, European Union law
and revenue law. In addition, the
legal skills modules which are
currently employed on our courses
will be enhanced and developed.
Optional subjects will be provided
and will include an enhanced
Practice Management Module,
General Management, Company
Secretarial functions, Fund
Management and Administration and
Computer Training;
(4) the teaching methodology on the
new course will be by lecture,
tutorial and workshop. Teaching
schemes for each of these
components will be clearly set and
actively monitored and assessed;
where it was reasonably foreseeable to
an employer that an employee might
suffer a nervous breakdown because of
the stress and pressures of his workload,
the employer was under a duty of care,
as part of the duty to provide a safe
system of work, not to cause the
employee psychiatric damage by reason
of the volume or character of the work
which the employee was required to
perform.
In
Walker,
the plaintiff has suffered a
nervous breakdown in 1986. He was off
work for three months, returned to work
and discussed his position with his
supervisor who agreed that some
assistance should be provided to lessen
the burden of his work. Only limited
assistance was provided; the plaintiff had
to clear the backlog of paperwork;
suffered a second nervous breakdown;
was forced to stop work permanently
and was dismissed by the local authority
(5) the Society will seek external
validation and accreditation of its
higher diploma course from selected
third level institutions. This will
allow students to use the
qualification as a means of pursuing
alternative careers if they so choose.
A N ew L aw School f or the P r o f e s s i on
In order to implement the above
proposals proper and adequate facilities
will be needed for the running of more
extended courses, including the
provision of a greater number of post-
qualification courses at CLE level. For
many years now the idea of developing a
purpose built law school has been
mooted. The question is can the
profession afford such a development?
We believe that the entirety of the
education function can be run as a
commercial operation on a self-financing
basis. The new purpose-built school will
offer value-for-money courses to both
the student body and the profession.
; Opportunity now knocks; existing
] corporation buildings on the comer of
i Woodlane, Hendricks Place and
Blackhall Place have become available
to the Society. A pro-active stance has
been taken by the Law Society in
i submitting plans for a new school to be
J
built on this site which aptly acts as a
| natural book-end to Society buildings
(see photo of architect's model). If
planning permission is obtained the
on the grounds of permanent ill-health.
He brought an action against the local
authority claiming damages for breach of
its duty of care, as his employer, to take
reasonable steps to avoid exposing him
to a health-endangering workload.
Colman J
held that the local authority
was liable in negligence for the
plaintiff s second nervous breakdown.
[It is understood that this case is under
appeal].
Conclusion
There is now legal authority that
employers may be liable for stress-
related injury to employees. The crucial
elements are the duty of care of the
employer to provide a safe system of
work, whether stress-related injury is
reasonably foreseeable, the link between
stress and the pressures of the
employer's workload and what measures
were taken to tackle the problem.
•
question of whether to proceed with such
a development will be put to the
solicitors' profession at the General
Meeting which will take place in the
Society on Thursday, 25 July.
i
The time is opportune for a significant
I and imaginative step forward towards
the development and provision of
relevant apprenticeship and post-
qualification education programmes. Is
it not fitting that in this the European
Year of Life Long Learning the Law
Society takes a historic step forward and
approves this mo ve to establish a Law
School which will be a fitting tribute to
the profession for generations to c ome?
Control of an independent and well
educated solicitors' profession is
fundamental to the maintenance of
respect for the individual, justice and the
rule of law in this democratic state of
Ireland. On 25 July 1996, the
membership will be asked to approve a
new set of bye-laws which will
implement the far-reaching
recommendations as approved at the
Special General Meeting on 7 March
last. We think the time is also ripe for
the profession to take equally far-
reaching decisions in the realm of legal
professional education and training. The
future is in your hands!
! Patrick J. O'Connor,
Chairman,
Education
Committee
141