Regulating solicitors - Scandals show reform is overdue
He also pointed out that Justice Minister Brian Lenihan was examining the issue but that a conclusion had not been reached. He conceded that a better model than self-regulation had to be found.
After all the Law Society cannot easily represent its members as a trade union one moment and, later, if needs be, discipline them.
In response to Mr Ahern’s statement the Law Society insisted that self-regulation was a thing of the past, “given the all-pervasive supervision and control of the existing regulation system at every level by independent people, including the president of the High Court, the independent adjudicator, and the non-lawyer nominees of IBEC, ICTU and the director of consumer affairs”.
It seems an awful lot of Liffey water will flow past the Four Courts before those two positions can be reconciled and the consumer given the protection we are all entitled to expect.
Since the Taoiseach’s statement we have seen the Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne scandals deepen, where more than €100 million has gone missing.
There is also the case of the solicitor who stole almost €1 million of his clients’ money.
Donaghmede-based Niall Colfer was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal, which recommended that he should be struck off “without delay” and complaints against him referred to the gardaí.
Mr Colfer misappropriated €700,000 from a company that sold 60 apartments in Dublin, deducted money from a dead man’s estate without permission and failed to pass on a €6,000 charity donation stipulated in a will. He also charged €16,000 in fees to two brothers whose uncle died, but subsequently deducted €73,000 from the estate without permission.
Earlier this week the Law Society failed in its attempt to have two other solicitors, who were accused of overcharging accident victims through a “sophisticated” fees scam, struck off.
Mayo-based solicitors Sean Acton and Michael McDarby avoided being struck off despite repeated pleas by the Law Society that they were not fit to practise after “driving a horse and cart” through solicitors’ regulations. The Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal denied a request by the Law Society to recommend to the High Court that they be struck off. The men, who admitted obstructing the Law Society’s investigation, were found guilty of eight charges of professional misconduct and fined €25,000 each.
Though every profession has members who break the rules these scandals make an irrefutable case for imposing regulation on the legal profession that will inspire confidence in those who use its services.
Remember, these headline cases are just the dramatic ones, there are likely to be many more where clients feel hard done by but believe there is no independent adjudicator to turn to.
Most people use legal services as a last resort or when they are involved in property deals. The stakes are high and if things go wrong there is the potential for great frustration allied to a sense of powerlessness.
The reality is that if an individual who did not enjoy the cloak of protection conferred by being a member of the legal profession was involved in financial misconduct at the levels described above, it would be an immediate matter for the gardaí, not some high consistory of professional colleagues who, in the consumers’ perception, often feel a deeper loyalty to their profession than to consumers.
The times they are a changin’ — but far too slowly.
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