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GAZETTE
DECEMBER 1991
Solicitors or suspended f rom
practice. I would like to take this
opportunity to advise all partners of
firms that they should take an
active interest in ensuring that the
Solicitors Accounts Regulations are
rigidly adhered to, because unless
they do so they will be equally
responsible for any breaches of the
Regulations should they arise.
In some instances false and mis-
leading information was given to
clients and the Society. It is incum-
bent on each solicitor to reply fully
and accurately to any enquiry which
may be received from the Law
Society. Obviously situations where
a solicitor misleads his client in rela-
tion to the settlement of an accident
claim, and then proceeds to settle
her action and endorse her settle-
ment cheque without her consent
must be viewed with gravity be-
cause they are particularly damaging
to the reputation of the profession.
A feature of most complaints which
come before the Committee is the
failure of solicitors to reply to cor-
respondence from clients or the
Society. This is a constant omission
by members of the profession who
appear before the Committee and is
a source of exasperation especially
when it transpires that a complaint
would not have been pursued had
the solicitor responded to a client or
the Law Society. I have already indi-
cated in a previous report that the
Committee views and will continue
to view such failures as very serious,
and as sufficient grounds for mis-
conduct and in the absence of an
adequate explanation will report
such findings to the President of the
High Court.
During the year Mrs.
Moya Quintan
and Ms.
Elma Lynch
were re-
appointed to the Committee by the
President of the High Court for
another period of five years.
I would like to record my thanks to
the members of the Committee for
their hard work and support during
the past year and to
Mary Lynch,
Clerk to the Committee, who looks
after the work and administration
most expertly.
Walter Beatty
Chairman
3 December, 1991
(A list of the members of the Disciplinary
Committeeappears on page 390 of this
Gazette).
Correspondence
Dear Sir,
I came to live here in Italy
approximately six weeks ago, it
being my i n t en t i on when I
mastered the language sufficiently
to return to the profession. In the
meantime, I was advised very
strongly by the Department of
Social Welfare in Ireland to register
myself immediately w i t h the
Department of Labour and Finance
here in order to obtain a Revenue
Number and also to get myself
registered as unemployed and thus
keep up my pension rights until I am
in a position to pay tax or social
insurance.
After four weeks of no less than 14
visits to numerous government
offices, I have finally succeeded.
Amongst the many details I was
required to give was my mother's
maiden name. One office insisted
on seeing my original Parchment.
Having made arrangements to have
this forwarded, I was informed by
a different office that it was quite
useless as my qualifications did not
apply here. In another office, I dis-
covered them checking up on
Social Welfare requirements in
Irelandl
I write to alert any members of the
profession considering coming to
work here to be prepared for
endless delays, the fact that we are
all EC members will not make one
bit of difference.
Yours faithfully,
Lavinia Anderson,
Via Aia S, francesco 19,
03013 Ferention FR,
Italy.
YOUR WILL
can help
Adreen Cheshire Home
Shillelagh
For donations and further
particulars contact:
Jarlath Tunney
or
Margaret Warren
Ardeen, Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow.
T«l : (055) 29143 Fax : (055) 20170
Civil Legal Aid Report
(Cont'd from page 403)
8. The Legal Aid Board should be
entitled to recover costs against
unsuccessful parties.
r
9. In 1977 the Pringle Committee
estimated that the cost of
introducing a comprehensive
scheme of legal aid would be
£2m. That figure translated into
1991 prices would now be just
over £6m. Currently, t he
Government is spending only
£2.5m a year. The cost of a
properly funded comprehensive
legal aid scheme is not high and
the Committee believes that
even in t imes of financial
stringency it is a vital service. If
these recommendations were
imp l emen t ed, t he ex i s t i ng
scheme could be substantially
improved and the cost involved
would not be inordinate and
certainly not disproportionate to
the importance of the issue
involved.
The report of the Committee has
been approved by the Council of
the Law Society and a copy has
been submitted to the Minister for
Justice.
The members of the Committee
were:
Moya Quintan,
(Chairman),
Frank O'Donnell, Ernest Margetson,
Michael Rei/ly,
Judge of the District
Court,
Eugene Davy, Me! Cousins,
Noel C. Ryan,
and
Linda Kirwan
(Secretary).
•
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