Alan Shatter: Vested interests won out in legal reform bill

The Coalition’s limited reforms in the legal sector were criticised yesterday by former justice minister Alan Shatter, who declared that “vested interests” had won over the rights of consumers.

He demanded that his successor reveal the legal threats allegedly made by lawyers to block reforms under the Legal Services Bill.

He accepted the proposed reforms, including the setting up of a legal services regulatory authority, would drag the legal professions “out of the 19th century into the 21st century”.

Nonetheless, he pointed out that, originally, planned measures to eliminate anti-competitive practices for solicitors and barristers had been taken out of the bill.

The legislation had envisaged multi-disciplinary practices or legal partnerships would put an end to lawyers acting as sole traders and stop duplication of work. This, in turn, would reduce costs for clients.

Currently, there are restrictions on barristers operating outside of the Bar Council, he said.

The original legislation had sought to outlaw a code of practice which inhibited the creation of legal partnerships for barristers, he told the Dáil.

But, under changes overseen by his successor Frances Fitzgerald, he said there was now no timeframe for the roll-out of one-stop legal shops for consumers.

Without changes to existing codes for the Bar Council, some barristers, he said, could face the threat of “excommunication” from the body if they entered into new legal partnerships.

Mr Shatter argued it was ridiculous for some to claim that he had a dislike for barristers .

“There is this perspective on the part of some members of the Law Library that I have some hostility towards them which is completely insane because my own law firm, for donkey’s years, has worked with, and instructed, a multitude of barristers and I have worked with many barristers.”

He also claimed the removal of anti-competitive practices in the bill could lead to a Constitutional challenge.

“It has to be remembered one of the undeclared rights in the Constitution, articulated by the courts, is the right to earn a livelihood.”

The Fine Gael TD called on Ms Fitzgerald to reveal what threats had been made by representative bodies to block the proposed legal reforms, revealing: “During my time as minister, a range of threats were uttered with regard to the processing of all this legislation… the minister should tell the house which of the representative bodies threatened court proceedings. I do not think the threat of court proceedings should inhibit this reform.”

Mr Shatter, who resigned as a minister last year over Garda-related controversies, said he favoured the public interest over vested interests. “There are judgments to be made in these areas when vested interest bodies flex their muscles, and I believe, unfortunately, we will have to return to this issue.”