The Gazette 1995

GAZETTE

MWH

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1995

claims unless they believed courts

would find them guilty of negligence

he said. I B EC, according to the

article, welcomed the Law So c i e t y 's

proposal to curb advertising by

solicitors and to put an end to

'ambulance chasing'.

An article was published in the

Irish

Times

on the 19 August, 1995 by

Carol Coulter.

The headline read

"Calls For Curbs on Solicitors Ads".

"Proponents defend the 'no foal no

fee' practice as giving the poor access

to civil law" she states. She continues

"the question of solicitors advertising

has become a contentious one, with

the employers' association I B EC and

the insurance industry accusing the

profession of contributing to a

'compensation culture'". The article

went on to say that the Law Society is

examining the issue, and will be

issuing new guidelines to replace

those it issued in 1988, when it first

became legal for lawyers to advertise.

The article examined the different

issues involved and concluded that:

"It is likely that, when the Law

So c i e t y 's new regulations come into

force, the nature of solicitors

advertising will change. But it is

arguable whether this will change the

volume of litigation. The attitudes

which have produced a high level of

litigation in Ireland extend beyond the

legal profession".

An article was published in the

Sunday Business Post

on 20 August,

1995 with the heading " Compo

Culture Debate Heats Up". The article

stated that

Ken Murphy,

Director

General of the Law Society stirred up

a hornet's when he suggested on

Morning Ireland

that personal injury

claims arose from a negligence culture

rather than a claims culture. The

article quoted

Ken Murphy

who stood

over his

Morning

Ireland

statement

and said he would not automatically

accept statistics from a vested interest

group like I B EC unless he had the

opportunity to examine the authority

for them. " S o much can be done with

statistics" he said. The article stated

that there is an oversupply of

solicitors and that industry argue that

this influx of newly-qualified

practitioners will push more solicitors

towards personal injury claims, which

224

are quite lucrative and viewed as easy

money.

Ken Murphy

said, "We have

been told by the Government that we

h a v e to operate an open-access policy

in terms of admissions to the

profession. Solicitors will have to

develop every area of potential

business and this (personal injury

cases) is one of them." The article

concluded with the words of the

Director General "but solicitors

cannot invent claims. Either people

have been injured by the negligence of

others and are entitled to claim, or

they have not. The number of

solicitors does not affect that

essential reality".

An article was published in the

Irish

Independent

21 August, 1995 with

the headline "Employers Clash with

Solicitors on Injury Claims". The

article stated that "a new row about

Ireland's high rate of injury claims

erupted last night as employers

organisation I B EC said the problem

had its roots more deeply embedded in

the compensation culture than in

deficient safety standard in the work

place". The article continued:

"However, a Law Society

spokeswoman hit back last night,

saying damages would not be awarded

unless there was negligence. If I B EC

was concerned about the level of

damages, employers should look

to their own safety standards"

she added.

The Director General participated in a

debate with

Neil McGuinness,

I B EC spokesperson on health and

safety, on the R T E 1 radio programme

'Between

the Lines'

on 22 August,

1995.

Neil McGuinness

claimed that

the record of Irish business on

accidents in the work place was better

in the UK.

Ken Murphy

took issue

with the statistics figures being used.

He pointed out that such authorities as

the Minister of State for Labour

Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald and Mr

Eugene Carney, Industrial Engineer of

S I PTU, have researched and found

that only 1 5% of reportable accidents

in Ireland are actually reported. He

contended that fatal injury statistics

are much more reliable and they show

that fatal workplace injuries in Ireland

in 1993 were three times higher than

the UK. As a matter of probability it

follows that serious and minor injury

risk is also substantially higher in

Ireland than in the UK. The European

Commissioner had found that Ireland

had the lowest perception of risk in

relation to safety in the workplace of

any state in the EU. He said that

employers will not pay out damages

unless there is negligence and that no

claim can be sustained unless there is

negligence. He stood over his claim

that there is a 'negligence culture' in

this country and employers should

increase safety levels if they want to

reduce the number of claims instead

of blaming solicitors. The Director

General hit out at I B E C ' s 'compo

culture' campaign saying " The health

and safety record here is nothing

to be proud of and quite frankly the

Law Society and solicitors are

getting a bit fed up with I B EC seeking

to blame solicitors. The level of

claims is high, the level of negligence

is high and I B EC should be

addressing cause of the problem, not

its symptom".

In an article in the

Irish

Independent

on 23 August, 1995 it was reported

that the unions had now clashed with

employers on safety. The article stated

that "an estimated 3 , 0 00 Irish people

died in the work place over 25 years -

as many as in the North troubles", the

country's largest trade union said

yesterday. S I P TU safety officer,

Sylvester

Cronin,

claimed thousands

o f accidents in the work place went

unreported every year and said the

onus was on employers to reduce the

cost of claims". "There has been no

outcry about the carnage in the

work place", said Mr. Cronin, who

insisted Ireland had four times as

many work-related fatalities per capita

as Britain.

Catherine Dolan.

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