Written answers

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Department of Justice and Equality

Legal Services

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to improve accountability of the legal profession in view of the lack of independent procedures and penalties operated by the Law Society of Ireland. [53995/12]

Photo of Tommy BroughanTommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the reforms he has introduced to the legal profession to ensure greater competitiveness and price transparency for consumers; if he plans any further reforms of the legal and other professions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51777/12]

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 451 and 473 together.

The matters to which the Deputies refer are among those being addressed by the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 which completed Second Stage in the Dáil on 23 February and is due to commence Committee Stage early in the new year. The Bill provides for the modernisation and reform of the way legal services are provided in the State along with the more independent regulation of the legal professions and greater transparency and competition in relation to legal costs. The Bill, therefore, gives legislative expression to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to "establish independent regulation of the legal professions to improve access and competition, make legal costs more transparent and ensure adequate procedures for addressing consumer complaints".It supports the objectives of structural reform, national competitiveness and economic recovery as a specific deliverable under the EU/IMF/ECB Troika Memorandum of Understanding while also taking account of recommendations made by the Legal Costs Working Group and by the Competition Authority. The Competition Authority has published reports on several of the professions in addition to solicitors and barristers - for example, on doctors and dentists - and these other professions are outside my remit as Minister for Justice, Equality & Defence.

In relation to Deputy Broughan's question on legal costs, the Bill makes extensive provision, particularly in Part 9, for a new and enhanced legal costs regime that will bring greater transparency to how legal costs are charged along with a better balance between the interests of legal practitioners and those of their clients. The Bill sets out, for the first time in legislation, a series of Legal Costs Principles. These are contained in Schedule One and enumerate the various matters that may be taken into account if disputed costs are submitted for adjudication. For the first time, these cost transparency measures will apply to barristers as well as to solicitors.

Under the Bill it will no longer be permissible to set fees as a specified percentage or proportion of damages payable to a client from contentious business. It will no longer be permissible to charge Junior Counsel fees as a specified percentage or proportion of Senior Counsel fees. Legal practitioners will be obliged to provide more detailed information about legal costs from the outset of their dealings with clients. This will be in the form of a Notice written in clear language which must be provided when a legal practitioner takes instructions. Among other things, the Notice must, as set out in Section 90 of the Bill, disclose the costs that are involved, or, where this is not practicable, the basis upon which such costs are to be calculated. A cooling-off period is to be allowed for the consideration of costs by the client. When there are any significant developments in a case which give rise to further costs the Bill provides that a client must be duly updated and given the option of whether or not to proceed with the case in question. The Bill also provides that a new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator will deal with disputes about legal costs – at present these are dealt with by the Office of the Taxing-Master. The new Office, headed by a Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator, will modernise the way disputed legal costs are adjudicated with greater transparency. The Office will be empowered to prepare Legal Costs Guidelines. It will establish and maintain a publicly accessible Register of Determinations which will include the outcomes and reasons for its determinations about disputed legal costs. Two new Taxing-Masters have been appointed by public competition under the enhanced qualification criteria of Part 14 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 to prepare the way for these modernisation measures.

While the accountability of the two legal professions is to be enhanced under the Legal Services Regulation Bill, it is not accurate to contend that there are no "independent procedures and penalties operated by the Law Society of Ireland". Under current law the Law Society is, in fact, bound by the conduct regime of the Solicitors Acts 1954 to 2011. In particular, Part 3 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act of 1994 makes detailed provision for the investigation of complaints against solicitors. The Society’s Complaints and Client Relations Committee, which includes lay members, determines complaints lodged directly to the Law Society by members of the public. A member of the public who is dissatisfied with how the Law Society handles such a complaint may, under the current legislation, then refer the matter to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (also appointed under the Solicitors Acts) at any time within the three year period immediately following the Society’s decision.

Complaints about professional misconduct may also be made directly to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Even where a complaint of misconduct has been made to the Law Society in the first instance, it may also be referred by the Society to the Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal, which includes lay persons, are appointed by the President of the High Court. Where there is a finding of misconduct, the Tribunal can impose a sanction on the solicitor ranging from admonishment to a direction to pay restitution of a sum not exceeding €15,000 to any aggrieved party. In more serious cases the Tribunal may refer its finding and recommendation to the President of the High Court who ultimately will decide on the nature of the sanction to be imposed on the solicitor. The powers of sanction available to the High Court range up to the striking off of a solicitor. If either party is unhappy with a decision of the Tribunal this may be appealed to the High Court. The Law Society's disciplinary regime, the Solicitor's Disciplinary Tribunal and the High Court have dealt with several high-profile cases in recent years some of which, as Deputy Daly will be aware, have resulted in the striking off of the solicitor concerned.

The Legal Services Regulation Bill represents both an enhancement and a broadening of the existing disciplinary regime by providing for an independent body, the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority, to consider complaints against solicitors and barristers with the support of a designated Complaints Committee. The Regulatory Authority will be independently appointed and have a lay majority and a lay chair. It will provide a first point-of-call for complaints that is fully independent of the professional bodies. Under the Bill, therefore, members of the public will no longer go to the Law Society or the Bar Council, or to their respective disciplinary tribunals, to deal with complaints as generally happens at present. Instead, they will do so through the new and independent Legal Services Regulatory Authority. The new Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal will replace the two separate conduct tribunals operating at present with one entity dealing with allegations of misconduct relating both to solicitors and to barristers.

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