The price of justice

A legal battle between a songwriter and his former solicitor again raises the question of legal fees and the bearing they have on legal outcomes, writes Michael Clifford.

THERE were times yesterday when Johnny Duhan’s voice trembled on the edge of song. The singer/songwriter, who penned the well-known tune, The Voyage, had at his fingertips all the elements required for a good ballad.

He was pursuing justice at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, pitted against elements of a powerful profession. All he had in his corner was his daughter, Eve, up against a battery of pin-striped legal types. The tribunal was sitting in a converted friary, behind locked gates, which once kept the peasants at bay. Meanwhile, next door, Capuchin monks handed out the daily bread to a growing battery of the needy. If Johnny hadn’t been so preoccupied, he surely would have had a song fomenting in his head.