Government reform of legal profession criticised

The Government has been severely criticised for watering down reforms of the legal profession, which, according to the European Commission, could make the country’s recovery more difficult.

While the long-awaited law, demanded by the Troika as part of the changes needed to survive the banking crisis, finally went through the Dáil in December, it could take months to implement.

The regular report from Brussels on how the country is progressing devoted a chapter to legal services reform, warning that further reforms to the legal services could be needed.

And while the detailed assessment said the reforms could open the door to greater competition between lawyers with the aim of cutting costs overall, much will depend on the Legal Services Regulatory Authority yet to be established.

They noted that the reform of the legal profession had progressed very slowly. It was first introduced by former Justice Minister Alan Shatter in 2011 and “its ambition has been tamed”.

It finally became law in December “following significant concessions to the Law Society and Bar Council” after an unusually high number of amendments were introduced late in the process on a range of issues.

Holding off on commenting directly on how successful the watered-down reforms will be, the report said: “The proof of the pudding will be in the eating”, but welcomed a review clause introduced at the last moment to review the operation of the Act in two years.

Some of the concessions made to the legal eagles will diminish the chance of allowing more innovative players into the profession and improving competition between them, it said.

The report says the adverse changes to the bill include more stringent insurance requirements and a ban on groups providing a range of services including legal, under the one company.

It welcomed that the profession will now be subject to the oversight of an external body, the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, and hoped this would help cut legal services costs.

However, it said, “it is too early to be fully confident that the new framework will be effective”.

They sounded a shrill warning note about the cost and length of judicial procedures and said it was also “a major concern for non- financial and financial firms, including for those considering whether to start operations in Ireland”.

Long waiting times for cases to be heard and a huge backlog of cases is a problem as is the lack of any way of measuring quality standards.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission criticised the Department of Justice for “giving the Law Society and the Bar Council a veto over the provisions of the bill”, while they had not been largely sidelined.