Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Collins for his support in the passing of this Bill. In answer to his question, the kind of case he describes can be referred if it involves fraud, as can excessive costs, and complaints may be made by a client against a practitioner. Legal adjudication is there to assess costs and, arising from the Bill, far more transparency about costs is intended. A retrospective complaint, such as the one the Deputy described, could go to the legal costs adjudicator. The public will make their complaints about alleged misconduct on the part of solicitors and barristers to the new legal services regulatory authority instead of the Law Society or the Bar Council, as they do at present. That will include the handling of consumer-type complaints about excessive costs, which the regulatory authority will seek to resolve by informal means. This will provide ordinary consumers with an alternative solution to the more expensive process of going through the Taxing Master. However, the charging of grossly excessive fees by a legal practitioner will be dealt with under the conduct regime of the Bill as a matter of misconduct.

The Bill strengthens the position of consumers and there is greater transparency on costs by replacing the Taxing Master with the legal costs adjudicator. There will be independent procedures for complaints, discipline and general complaints and these will now go to an independent body where previously they had been dealt with under the Solicitors Acts within the Law Society while barristers dealt with these cases and published a report once a year. Now there is an independent body for complaints or discipline and this is a major change and a significant step forward.

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