The Gazette 1991

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GAZETTE DECEMBER 1991
Opening Message f r om t he
President 3 85
Lawbrief 3 99
Need for Comp r ehens i ve
Scheme of Civil Legal Aid 4 0 3
People & Places 4 05
Valuation for CAT and
S t amp Du ty Purposes 4 07
Book Reviews 4 15
Solicitors Bill
Annual Report of t he
Disciplinary Comm i t t ee 4 21
Professional I n f o rma t i on 4 2 5
*
Editor:
Barbara Cahalane
Committee:
Eamonn G. Hall, Chairman
Maeve Hayes, Vice-Chairman
John F. Buckley
Gerard Griffin
Elma Lynch
Justin McKenna
Michael O'Mahony
Noel C. Ryan
Eva Tobin
Advertising:
Seán Ó hOisín. Telephone: 305236
Fax: 307860
Printing:
Turner's Printing Co. Ltd., Longford.
The views expressed in this publication,
save where otherwise indicated, are the
views of the contributors and not
necessarily the views of the Council of
the Society.
The appearance of an advertisement in
this publication does not necessarily
indicate approval by the Society for the
product or service advertised.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7
Tel.: 710711. Telex: 31219. Fax: 710704.
A J f t INCORPORATE D
| f | / L I L LAWSOCIETY
hH / r I Irofireland
l Í H i h H I I Vol. 85 No. 10 December 1991
Viewpoint
Legal Controls on Solicitors
Remuneration are Anti-Competitive
Through the medium of the
Competition Act, 1991, the Minister
for Industry and Commerce, Mr.
O'Malley, has sought to introduce
new competition rules one of the
objectives of which is to outlaw
concerted practices or anything in
the nature of price fixing arrang-
ments. These new rules apply
across the board and will impinge
on the professions, including the
legal profession. While it remains to
be seen precisely what the impact
of the Competition Act will be on
the legal profession, one inter-
pretation of it is that it will prevent
Bar Associations from recommend-
ing mi n imum fees to their
members. It might also have
implications for the Law Society
itself in so far as the Society
promulgates guideline rates for
particular legal services.
Whatever its e f f ect on legal
services, the Competition Act was
intended to herald a new era of
compe t i t i on, impo r t i ng into
domes t ic law some of the
principles of the Treaty of Rome,
and ensuring that there was real
and genuine competition in the
marketplace in the supply of goods
and services. For that reason, the
solicitors' profession in Ireland
might well have expected that the
new competition rules would have
meant an end to legal controls on
solicitors' remuneration. On exam-
ination of the Competition Act,
however, it transpires that the
competition rules do not affect any
statutory provisions and, conse-
quently, notwithstanding the new
spirit of competition that has been
ushered in by the Act, the full
panoply of legal controls on
solicitors remuneration are
untouched.
The preparation of a new Solicitors
Bill afforded another opportunity to
the Government to show that their
c omm i tment to the ideal of
compe t i t i on was all t hat it
purported to be. Close examination
of the Bill reveals a number of
provisions that, once again, are
consistent with the concept of a
free market situation. There is, for
example, a provision in the Bill
which prohibits the Society from
preventing solicitors charging less
than the current scale fee for any
particular service; there are
provisions which will introduce
competition from banks and trust
corporations in the area of probate
work and which will also provide
competition from banks in relation
to conveyancing. Moreover, there is
a provision controlling the manner
in which solicitor and client fees
may be charged and, to cap it all,
the Law Society will be given a
statutory role in relation to dealing
with complaints about solicitors
who overcharge their clients. When
one takes into accoun t, in
conjunction with the foregoing, the
existing system whereby a client
can have a Taxing Master in the
High Court or a County Registrar in
the Circuit Court adjudicate on the
fairness of solicitor's bill of costs
one would have thought that there
was an adequate infrastructure to
ensure that the forces of com-
petition could operate and ade-
(Cont'd overleaf)
383