Official regulation of legal profession needed

The embezzlement of clients funds is becoming an all too familiar story among the legal profession.

A growing number of solicitors are being struck off annually for misconduct and fraud with substantial sums of money involved.

The scale of fraud in some cases has been astonishing and it is quite clear that many of those who run the justice system are behaving like hardened criminals, who flee the jurisdiction when they are found out.

Members of the legal profession are in very powerful positions as a result of their escrow services or any other financial activities which they may provide. The risk to their clients is all too obvious and it is becoming clear that banking-type services are being practised by solicitors with no minimum safeguards against money held. To date, the legal profession has been a self-regulating body. This is a situation that can no longer be tolerated, given the current ethics crisis within the profession.

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork