Results 281-300 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister. What she said is most interesting. An allied concern is that if we have law firms, access to law might become more difficult. If we allowed correct access to barristers, it might become less difficult. That should be considered. Will the firms with large numbers of partners comprise a means of excluding those on low or below-average incomes from gaining access to...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: As Minister stated, this pertains to setting up the procedure to deal with the costs aspects. If there is a known referee, the Taxing Master as was, and the chief legal costs adjudicator, it might help the process to be able to state that while the two parties can continue having this argument, the adjudication is that costs were X amount. It is a suggestion to the Minister that it may be...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: On amendment No. 68, under the new complaints regime, and I may have misinterpreted the Minister, there will not be 27 people hearing the case. Do the 27 divide the work among them? Is it the case that the 27 people handle all the complaints but do not hear them all? Is there a smaller committee to do the work because 27, including eight solicitors and four barristers, seems a cumbersome body.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: Is it intended that all 27 will be there?

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: That is not the intention.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 98:In page 71, to delete lines 10 to 15. The issue is how we determine the costs. The key point is whether the costs will be averaged over all the members or whether more of the costs will be paid by those about whom the most complaints are made. If the costs are averaged then a moral hazard arises since everybody pays but those who perform least successfully,...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister for her clarification. It seems that if a barrister is employed by a company and satisfies all the duties the company requires him or her to discharge, then that barrister may face a levy because somebody else is dealing in an unsatisfactory way with his or her own clients. The general principle should be that those who give rise to the complaints should bear the costs...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: No, I was glad to have the opportunity to explain to the Minister what I had in mind.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: Section 84 is related to section 86. The former defines a contentious matter as "a matter that arises in, and that relates to the subject matter of, proceedings before any court, tribunal or other body or person before which the respective legal rights and obligations of two or more parties are determined, to which the person instructing the barrister concerned is a party". Section 86...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: This is David versus Goliath. There was an access through country solicitors to sole trader barristers. I disagree with my learned friend, Senator Hayden. Corporatisation holds dangers for the average citizen facing these corporate law firms. It will also be David versus Goliath in the courts.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: This section is all about contentious matters. One can talk to one’s barrister without a solicitor being there, provided the matter is not contentious. That seems to retain the prohibition that I have been against since the debate began some hours ago.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: In subsection (7), unqualified person means a solicitor not qualified to practise within the meaning of the Solicitors Act. I am confused. The person is either qualified or not. What is this intended to convey?

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: We have acknowledged that the person is a solicitor. That is a qualification.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I do not wish to delay this, but we grant that he or she is qualified. Perhaps this is something we can return to on Report Stage.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: Senator O'Donovan is correct. One qualifies the day one graduates, but one can get one's self disqualified afterwards.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I worry about subsection (5) and the Chinese walls. There are some law and accounting firms in this city of which it is said that there are so many Chinese walls that there are rickshaws parked outside. The subsection provides that a legal practitioner who is a partner in, or an employee of, a multidisciplinary practice shall not in the provision by him or her of legal services for a client...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 114:In page 79, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following:“(f) specify the cost to the client of the services specified at (a) to (e) inclusive”. The letter of engagement provides for many worthy things, such as specifying the services to be provided, specifying the services referred to in paragraph (a), specifying which of the services are services...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: Section 124 on agreement regarding legal costs, etc. states, "A legal practitioner and his or her client may make an agreement". I have asked for "shall" to replace "may". As the Minister has said, it is necessary that those costs be stated upfront given the level of complaints. I am inclined to agree with the Minister providing that the amendment to section 124 is acceptable but we have...