Solicitors’ fees - Time to rein in greedy lawyers

ATTITUDES towards the legal profession will undoubtedly be coloured by the outcome of the Law Society’s investigation into double charging of clients by solicitors which begins today.

There can be no doubt a jaundiced public will welcome the scathing remarks of the Master of the High Court, Edmund Honohan, the most senior courts official in the country, who says reform of the legal profession must now be high on the political agenda.

Echoing the public’s growing sense of dismay, he expressed disgust at how widespread the practice of overcharging appears to have been in the case of the Residential Institutions Redress Board.