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MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL
October 15th
The President in the chair, also present: Messrs
Brendan A. McGrath, Francis J, Lanigan, George
A. Nolan, Robert McD. Taylor, Bruce St. John
Blake, Peter D. M. Prentice, Desmond Moran,
David R. Pigot, John Maher, Eunan McCarron,
Augustus Cullen, Ralph J. Walker, Senator John
J. Nash, William B. Alien, Gerald Hickey, William
A. Osborne, Christopher Hogan, Patrick C. Moore,
John Carrigan, Gerard M. Doyle, Peter E.
O'Connell, Patrick Noonan, Thomas
Jackson,
Walter Beatty, James W. O'Donovan, Gerald J.
Moloney, Patrick F. O'Donnell and Mrs. Moya
Quinlan.
The following was among the business trans
acted.
.
Criminal legal aid scheme
The motion on the agenda for the meeting of
the Council on July 16th was again on the agenda
for the present meeting. The President read a
letter from the Minister for Justice indicating that
new regulations were to be introduced forthwith
giving effect
to certain
increases
in
fees. The
motion on the agenda was not moved and accord
ingly lapsed.
Road Safety Committee
Mr. Fionnbar Callanan, Assistant Solicitor in
the office of the Law Agent, C.I.E., was appointed
as the Society's representative on the committee.
Legal remuneration—Central Costs Committee
Correspondence received by the President from
the Minister for Justice was read and a reply was
settled. .....
Personal undertakings
The following letter was written by a member
to a solicitor acting for a creditor of his client.
I confirm that my client is selling his premises
and I have now
received
instructions
to
undertake that when the premises have been
sold my client will discharge the amount due
namely £1,^01:-17-'10 out :pf the -proceeds of
sale.
The Council decided as between the parties that
the letter did not amount to a personal under
taking by member to discharge the creditor's claim
from his own funds if the monies coming into his
hands on behalf of the client were insufficient.
Interest on damages
Attention was drawn to the unfavourable posi
tion of a client who is entitled to heavy damages
and is faced by an insurance company. The insur
ance company or any other wealthy corporation
can afford to appeal and interest at only 4 per
cent will be allowed on the amount of the High
Court
judgment. Assuming
that
the plaintiff
obtains a verdict it may be well worth bringing an
appeal on behalf of the defendants who will have
the use of the plaintiff's money at 4 per cent. It
was suggested that the law should be changed to
correspond with the law in England where interest
on damages will be assessed from the date of issue
of the originating summons at a rate prescribed
by the Rules of Court to correspond with the rate
of interest on short term Government loans. It was
decided that the Secretary should write to the
Committee on Court Practice and Procedure
suggesting that this matter should be investigated.
Conflict of interest
A motorist driving a car in which his wife and
daughter were passengers was involved in a colli
sion with another car as the result of which the
motorist and his daughter were seriously injured
and his wife was killed. The first motorist sued the
second and instructed a solicitor, AB. The daughter
and
the
representatives of
the deceased wife
brought representative actions against the drivers
of both cars engaging XY & Co. as their solicitors
for the representative actions. An assistant solicitor
in XY & Co. who was dealing with the represen
tative actions subsequently became associated with
the office of the solicitor AB for the first motorist.
The opinion of the Council was sought as
to
whether the fact that the assistant solicitor had
dealt with the representative actions raised any
conflict of interest which would prevent him from
dealing with the proceedings on behalf of the first
motorist against the second. The representative
actions were defended by different solicitors. The
Council on the facts before them held that there
is no conflict of interest which would prevent the
assistant solicitor from acting as mentioned above.
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