‘Secret shoppers’ to expose touting lawyers at courts

The Law Society is to deploy undercover agents around the country’s court venues in a bid to expose unscrupulous solicitors touting for business.

The use of the “secret shopper” at court venues to identify those solicitors engaging in the unauthorised practice of approaching court clients to represent them is one of a series of recommendations aimed at stamping out the practice in a new Law Society report.

The review group was established by the Law Society in response to the “unprecedented level of concern” by solicitors over the unauthorised practice and “the widespread disappointment at the apparent ineffectiveness of the Law Society to act”.

As other aspects of solicitors’ work such as conveyancing has collapsed, criminal legal aid work remains lucrative with the State paying €29.3 million to 963 solicitors last year.

In the District Court, solicitors receive €201.50 (VAT inclusive) to represent a client for the first day and €50 on each adjourned day through the criminal legal aid scheme.

The report by the group — established on foot of a motion before the Law Society’s AGM last November — states that there is unprecedented competition for criminal legal aid business in an environment where “unacceptable professional practices thrive”.

The report states that the unauthorised practice of solicitors touting for business at courts “has dramatically increased in recent years and appears particularly to affect vulnerable non-national clients who misunderstand an improper professional approach as being officially sanctioned”.

On the option of sending secret shoppers to court venues, the 45-page report states solicitors who approach the secret shopper seeking out business would not necessarily be referred to the Law Society’s Disciplinary Tribunal, “if this was the first occasion they had engaged in this activity, but would rather be advised that they had been identified as part of a Society initiative and cautioned”.

Director general of the Law Society Ken Murphy would not say when the society will deploy the secret shoppers.