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GAZETTE
It was reported in the
Irish Times
Business Supplement
on 26 May that
solicitors are not to be included in
the Bill.
Capping
An article was printed in the
Irish
Times
on 18 April 1995 by
Kieran
Conway
with the headline:
"Government Now Treads Carefully
on the Capping of Insurance Awards."
The article stated that the limitation of
insurance awards for compensation
paid following accidents was raised
by the previous Government but has
not been pursued in any vigorous way
by this Government. The article
reported the fact that the Department
is commissioning a study of the
insurance industry. The article pointed
out that the unions are vigorously
opposing the proposals. The article
reported that according to SIPTU, the
proposals flew "in the face of
encouraging employers to reduce
occupational accidents as the prime
means of reducing insurance
premiums". It also reported that MSF
said that they were a "quick fix
solution", that would not work. Fine
Gael produced a discussion document
that reproduced the arguments being
made by the Unions and the law
bodies in calling for attention to be
focused instead on the cause of the
claims - namely the high accident rate
both on the roads and in the
workplace. The article also stated that
Mr. Quinn's speech last October was
virtually contemporaneous with a Law
Commission report in England which
suggested that compensation levels
were too low there and in many cases
need to be doubled or, in other words
pitched at precisely the level being
awarded by the Irish Courts. The
article quoted Law Society
spokeswoman, Ms.
Catherine
Dolan,
in saying that lawyers are waiting to
see what the new Government does.
The article went on to say that
lawyers believe the issue had not gone
away forever but concluded that
perhaps not but the present indications
are that it has gone away for quite
some time.
An article was published in the
Evening Herald
on 10 May 1995 on
the issue of compensation claims. The
article stated that the Law Society is
horrified at the idea of eliminating
pain and suffering. "That is asking the
victim to pay the price for satisfying a
powerful interest group," says Ken
Murphy, Law Society. The article
continued to say that the real problem
is not at compo - culture but a
negligence culture, he believes. "We
have been far too tolerant of low
standards of health and safety in the
workplace and bad driving on the
roads. The main reason that insurance
is expensive is not that awards are too
high or that solicitors by advertising
their services can promote a claim
culture. The reason is that far too
many accidents are caused by
negligence". The article stated that
Ken Murphy agreed that high
insurance costs are a problem but the
solution is not to reduce compensation
to victims of negligence.
The Compensation Fund
An article was published in the
Irish
Independent
on Friday 12 May 1995
on the Compensation Fund. The
article gave information about how
the Compensation Fund operates. The
article quoted Ken Murphy in saying
that: "it is not sufficiently recognised
in these circumstances that anyone
who loses money through the bad
practices of a solicitor will be paid in
full by the profession. This money is
coming directly out of the pockets of
solicitors. Individual members of the
profession are paying towards the
millions which must compensate for
dishonesty," he said. The article went
on to say that the Law Society
maintains that the solicitors profession
is "unquestionably" the most
regulated profession in the country.
The article stated that: in addition to
the practising certificate and the
annual £1,210 fee for it, seven full-
time investigators are in place at the
Society's headquarters of Blackhall
Place, where they comb through the
accounts of the country's 5,000
solicitors practices regularly: "we
have seven full-time investigators and
they thoroughly check the accounts of
each practice at least once every five
years," said the spokeswoman for the
Society.
Catherine Dolan
•
MAY/JUNE 1995
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