Solicitors may face criminal charges for overcharging
Up to close of business yesterday, 29 people had phoned a hotline to complain they were charged fees after receiving awards from the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
Law Society director general Ken Murphy said: “If there’s a basis for believing a crime has been committed, the Law Society will not hesitate to refer the matter to the gardaí.”
He confirmed the organisation, which investigates complaints about solicitors, has received 29 calls from survivors of abuse in residential homes.
The Law Society will place advertisements in the press in Britain and in the North next week.
More than 500 solicitors’ firms have represented close to 8,000 alleged victims. All legal fees and reasonable expenses are paid by the board to those who successfully apply.
The Law Society has written to all firms representing clients who have lodged claims with the redress board demanding “full information on fees in all such cases”.
Seven firms representing hundreds of abuse survivors have issued a statement stating they never charged fees and describing the practice as reprehensible.
The solicitors who signed the statement were MacGuill & Co, Dundalk; Michael E Hanahoe & Co, Dublin; Murphy English & Co, Cork; Gallagher Shatter, Dublin; Pearse Mehigan & Co, Dublin; Wolfe & Co, Skibbereen, and Michael Lanigan & Co, Kilkenny.
One firm, McMahon O’Brien Downes, has admitted one of its solicitors, who no longer works for the firm, did charge fees. The money was paid back when the partners became aware of it, partner Seamus Downes said.
A Limerick-based solicitor, John Devane, said he had by agreement taken a fee from some clients. This happened, said Mr Devane, when it was unclear whether fees would be covered by the board and the money was later returned.
According to the society, until this week only one complaint had been received, which it said it was unable to investigate until a change of the law, effective from last July.
