Law Society denies it knew about overcharges

THE Law Society has hit back at the abuse victims compensation board for saying it could have done more to stop solicitors overcharging vulnerable clients.

In a letter to the Residential Institutions Redress Board yesterday, the Law Society’s director general, Ken Murphy, complained it “does not consider this implied criticism to be justified on the facts”.

“The board’s suggestion appears to be based on a mistaken impression that the society, prior to last week, had information from which it could reasonably have been expected to conclude that there was a widespread problem of solicitors double charging in Redress Board cases. The society had no such information.”