Written answers

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Department of Justice and Equality

Legal Services Regulation

Photo of Lucinda CreightonLucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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98. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the measures in the Legal Services Bill 2011 that are likely to lead to the greatest cost savings to the consumer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52656/13]

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011, which has completed Second Stage and is continuing Committee Stage, gives legislative expression to the commitment 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". Furthermore, as a sectoral objective under the EU/IMF/ECB Troika Memorandum of Understanding, it supports the objectives of structural reform, national competitiveness and early economic recovery, building on the relevant recommendations of the Legal Costs Working Group and the Competition Authority. The Bill is, therefore, a key component of the Government's strategy to reduce the burden of legal costs on consumers and enterprise.

The Bill, in three of the objectives it sets out in section 9 for the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority, balances the focus of regulation more evenly to the benefit of consumers of legal services. It does this in terms of 'protecting and promoting the public interest, protecting and promoting the interests of consumers relating to the provision of legal services and, promoting competition in the provision of legal services in the State'.

Building on these key and consumer focussed objectives, the Legal Services Regulation 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. 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, whether solicitor or barrister, 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 Guidelines and will establish and maintain a publicly accessible Register of Determinations which will include the outcomes and reasons for its decisions about disputed legal costs. The Bill also facilitates the introduction of new business models for the delivery of legal services including alongside other services where costs efficiencies can be captured to the benefit of consumers. In other provisions the Bill lifts existing restrictions on direct access to a barrister and on barristers who share premises or costs from advertising themselves as such a group. The Bill also allows that a barrister in employment may provide legal services for his or her employer.

In support of new and more open regulatory and legal costs regimes, the Bill also provides for a new and independent regulator in the form of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority that will be bolstered by an independent complaints regime and an independent Legal Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal. This will provide a first port of call that is entirely independent of the legal professional bodies for members of the public who may have complaints about solicitors or barristers. The comprehensive range of relevant reform measures contained in the Bill is intended to better empower the consumer of legal services in terms of both the standard of those services and their cost.

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