The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

A C T

I C E

N 0 T I E S

OCTOBER 1993

General Tax Amnesty

Practitioners should note that the Tax

Amnesty includes a general relief on

interest and penalties on all taxes

including Stamp Duty, CAT and CGT

for years up to 5 April, 1991. This

amnesty expires on 30 November,

1993.

Taxation Committee.

The view of the Professional Purposes

Committee is that when a vendor's

solicitor furnishes a contract to a

purchaser's solicitor, he must expect

that no amendments will have been

made to the contract, or to any map

attached to the contract, unless this

fact is clearly stated in the purchaser's

solicitor's covering letter returning

the contracts.

Accordingly, it is a recommendation of

the Professional Purposes Committee

that a vendor's solicitor must be clearly

alerted by the covering letter that a

contract or map has been amended.

Failure to so alert could be regarded by

the Committee as a breach of the

professional etiquette which should

exist between colleagues.

Professional Purposes Committee

Expert Witnesses in

Conveyancing Cases

The Conveyancing Committee

frequently receives requests from

solicitors acting in professional

negligence cases asking the

Committee to assist in finding an

expert witness to appear to give

evidence as to what might constitute

good conveyancing practice in the

circumstances of particular cases.

The Committee has received a number

of complaints from the practitioners

whom it has asked to appear as expert

witnesses in these cases, that their

advice has been sought at too late a

stage in the proceedings. A general

experience is that expert witnesses'

advice is not sought until the cases are

in the list for hearing. Sometimes they

are sought within a few weeks of the

likely hearing although this may not

be the fault of the solicitor acting.

The Conveyancing Committee does

not consider it satisfactory that expert

witnesses should be sought at such a

late stage in the proceedings. The

Committee takes the view that the

advice of an expert on good

conveyancing practice in a case

involving an allegation of professional

negligence in the conveyancing area

should be sought at the same stage

of proceedings as medical reports

would be sought in a personal

injury claim.

Conveyancing Committee

Medico-Legal Reports

Following discussions between the

Litigation Committee of the Law

Society and the Medical Council, the

following guidelines on medico-legal

reports were agreed and subsequently

approved by the Medical Council. The

guidelines were issued to lawfully

registered medical practitioners in a

newsletter last June. The relevant

extract of the newsletter is published

below:

Agreement with the Incorporated

Law Society

The Council and the Incorporated Law

Society have agreed guidelines on

medico-legal reports, as follows:

Request for Medico-Legal Reports:

A patient's doctor has a moral and

professional responsibility to supply a

medico-legal report on request from

the patient's solicitors as failure to

comply may lead to a patient being

deprived of benefits to which he/she

may be entitled. Failure to discharge

this responsibility in the interest of a

patient will result in the Council taking

a grave view of substantiated

complaints of this nature. In this

respect, the over-riding concern must

be at all times the interests of the

patient involved and in no circum-

stances should the delivery of a report

be unduly delayed. Attention is drawn

to the paragraph in Section D entitled

"Information" (ref. pages 28/29 of A

Guide to Ethical Conduct and

Behaviour and to Fitness to Practise,

Third Edition 1989 approved and

published by the Medical Council,

Dublin, March 1989) wherein it is

stated "Doctors may be requested by

the legal profession to provide medical

reports on patients whom they have

treated. There may be no legal

obligation on them to furnish such

reports but, if they are unwilling to do

so, they are required, in the interests of

their patients, to provide the necessary

information to a colleague who is

willing to provide a report". The

Council wishes to state that this advice

is forthwith withdrawn because of the

rule against hearsay. Hearsay evidence

is in general inadmissible because the

truth of the words cannot be tested by

cross examination and also because of

their nature the words themselves do

not have the sanctity of the oath.

Reasonable time to issue a Medico-

Legal Report:

Under ordinary circumstances, it is

reasonable to expect that a medico-legal

report normally will be provided within

two months after the examination or the

receipt of the request, whichever occurr-

ed last. The solicitor requesting the

report should be notified of any unavoid-

able delay beyond this two month period.

Amendments to Conveyancing

Contracts Before Execution By

a Purchaser

295