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GAZETTE
JULY/AUGUST 1985
matters. Some matters which your Society are presently
involved in, are as follows:—
1. Professional Indemnity Insurance. As you are no
doubt aware, we have a Compensation Fund, which
protects the public in that if a Solicitor is guilty of
fraud or misappropriation of funds the client will be
fully compensated. The same does not apply at
present where loss has been caused to a client as a
result of a Solicitor's negligence. Many Solicitors
already have policies of Professional Indemnity
Insurance to cover such claims, but others do not.
We are at present working towards making this type
of Insurance compulsory, and are in negotiation
with Insurance Brokers about this. However, the
whole Insurance market, and particularly the
Professional Indemnity Insurance market, is in
some degree of chaos world wide. You have
probably seen recently that Judgment was awarded
for negligence against a 29 partner firm of
Accountants in Australia, in the sum of approxi-
mately £100,000,000. If the Appeal against this
Judgment fails, then each and every one of those
partners faces Bankruptcy and all as a result of one
error made in one job about 8 years ago. At present,
a trader can set up shop through a Limited
Company, and if trade goes badly, may put that
Company into liquidation in a year's time. In such
cases, his personal assets, such as his house, are safe
except to the extent that he has given personal
guarantees. By contrast, a Solicitor may be a
partner in a firm for 30 or 40 years, and work
diligently and conscientiously at his job, and
suddenly find that all his personal assets are at total
risk as a result of an error made by another partner
or assistant. We are therefore actively investigating
the possibility of having the Law changed, so that
Solicitors will in future be entitled to the benefit of
Limited Liability.
2. Apart from these broader issues, this Society is
constantly working to try and eliminate those
problems which cause frustration to the public and
to the Solicitors' profession. At present, one of the
major problems in this area is delays in Government
Offices, largely caused by the shortage of staff. The
Land Registry is a case in point, where delays have
been increasing over the last few years, despite the
best efforts of those involved. We asked the Minister
to make a special case, so as to enable more people to
be employed in the Land Registry, because of the
particular situation that exists there, whereby the
Land Registry must be self-financing by Statute. We
have therefore advised the Minister that this would
be an ideal opportunity of providing a more
efficient service to the public and the profession,
while at the same time, giving increased
employment — at no cost to the State.
The Companies Office is another area where delays
have greatly i nc r e a s ed, and c au s ed huge
inconvenience to the public and to the Solicitors'
profession. However, it is in the process of being
computerised at the moment, and we hope these
delays will be reduced before long. In addition, we
Pictured at the Presentation of Parchments Ceremony are newly qualified solicitors (1. to r.) Aideen O'Reilly, Dublin;
Deirdre Durcan, Dublin; Richard Devereux, Wexford; Pauline O'Donovan, Dublin; and Nollaig Cleary, Dublin.
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