The Gazette 1994

GAZETTE

APRIL 1994

Deba te commences on

Sol ici tors Bill

Changes to the Solicitors Bill

and the commencement of the

second stage debate of the

legislation in Dail Eireann

attracted much attention in the

print media during the period

under review.

Government changes its mind on

conveyancing and probate

Following reports in the media on 24

! February (see Mediawatch, March

| Gazette,

Vol. 88 No. 2) that the

Government had decided to drop

| provisions in the Solicitors Bill which

would have permitted banks and other

| financial institutions to provide

conveyancing and probate services,

the newspapers of 25 February

reported that the Government's

decision was coming "under fire"

i from the banks, consumer groups and

the Mortgage Holders Association. In

a special report on law, the

Sunday

i Business Post

of February 27,

published an interview with the

President of the Law Society,

Michael

V. O'Mahony,

in which he welcomed

the decision. The article pointed out

that the Law Society had expressed

grave reservations about the future of

the 15,000 people employed as

support staff in legal practices

throughout the country if banks,

| building societies, credit unions and

insurance companies had been

permitted to do conveyancing and

probate work.

A one-page feature article in the

Irish

Press

of 3 March 1994, focused on the

Government's decision to drop the

provision and it quoted the Minister of

State at the Department of Justice,

Willie O 'Dea

TD, as saying that the

reason for his change of heart was that

he wanted to keep the work within the

ambit of the legal profession in order

to maintain jobs in the sector. He said !

he was aware that probate and

conveyancing work was the bread and

butter of many solicitors' practices

throughout the country.

The President of the Law Society,

Michael V. O'Mahony, was

interviewed on the RTE1 TV

Marketplace

programme on 9 March.

Welcoming the Government's

decision to drop the sections on

conveyancing and probate, Michael

O'Mahony said that the decision was

in the public interest and not just the

interests of the solicitors' profession.

He emphasised that importance of

people having access to

independent

legal advice when engaging in major

transactions. It was important for a

client, for example, in a house

purchase, to engage the services of a

solicitor who would act in and guard

the client's - and only the client's -

interest throughout the transaction.

Tribunal fees cloud debate

The commencement of the debate in

the Dail on the second stage of the

Solicitors (Amendment) Bill, 1994,

coincided with scrutiny by the Dail

Public Accounts Committee of the

level of fees paid to barristers

appearing for the State at the Beef

Tribunal. All the national daily papers

of 11 March reported the Minister of

State at the Department of Justice,

Willie O'Dea TD, at the

commencement of the second stage

debate, describing the bill as a major

reforming measure which was intended

to provide a modern framework for the

profession. It was prepared, he said,

against a background of persistent

public concern about the way

complaints were dealt with by the Law

Society and about difficulties in

obtaining redress against solicitors for

negligence, shoddy work and

overcharging. The Bill was strongly

criticised by the Fine Gael spokesman

on justice,

Gay Mitchell

TD, who

denounced the high level of fees

charged by members of the legal

profession. Mr. Mitchell said the Bill

was a staid and disappointing piece of

legislation and there were only a few

parts of the Bill which had not been

written by the Law Society, but these

had now been jettisoned following the

intervention of the Fianna Fail lawyers

in the house.

A front-page story in the

Evening

Herald

of 11 March 1994, entitled

"Bill to cap legal fees" reported that

the Minister of State, Willie O'Dea,

TD, had conceded that growing

pressure to introduce legislation to

regulate the Bar would have to be

addressed. He said that personally he

believed there was a need to regulate

the Bar but that the matter was one for

the Government as a whole to

consider. Writing in the

Irish Times

12 March, political correspondent,

Denis Coughlan,

said: "the decision to

retain the legal profession's monopoly

in this area [probate and

conveyancing] was taken without

consultation with the Labour Party

and is, even now, a matter for

discussion at Cabinet". Denis

Coughlan also reported comments by

the Fine Gael justice spokesperson,

Gay Mitchell TD, when Mr. Mitchell

argued that there was a clear conflict

of interest between the duties of the

Law Society to represent solicitors

while, at the same time, protecting the

public. Mr. Mitchell asked for an

independent body to be appointed to

represent the consumer.

The

Sunday Independent

of 13 March

1994, reported the Minister of State at

the Department of Justice, Willie

O'Dea, as defending his decision not

to allow banks to become involved in

the provision of conveyancing and

probate services. Mr. O'Dea said

banks and insurance companies could

have found themselves with a serious

conflict of interest. He highlighted the

provisions in the Bill which would

allow for greater competition and

would benefit the consumer such as

the fact that the Law Society would be

able to deal with complaints about

fees and that solicitors would be

I allowed to advertise their fees which,

he claimed, would give people a better

(Continued

overleaf)