THE LAW Society has strongly criticised proposals in the Legal Services Bill announced by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter yesterday.
However, the Consumers Association of Ireland has welcomed them.
The Cabinet yesterday approved the 260-page Bill, which will be published on Friday or Monday next. Mr Shatter outlined its main contents: “It is a good day for the consumer and the legal profession.”
He said the Bill provides for an independent dispute system to determine allegations of professional misconduct and a new system for costs adjudication.
This includes: the establishment of a legal costs adjudicator who will decide on disputed bills and set the basis for legal charges; and an independent complaints body with a lay majority, replacing the existing disciplinary committees run by the Law Society and the Bar Council.
“Restrictive practices which inhibit the delivery of legal services are being removed through new business models and anachronistic and unnecessary restrictions derived from regulatory rules which permeate the legal profession are outlawed,” Mr Shatter said.
He also said he was introducing greater competition in the provision of professional legal training and a reduction in its cost by looking at whether this could be provided by third-level institutions already teaching law degrees.
This will be among the measures examined by a proposed legal services regulatory authority. It will take over the existing regulatory functions of the Law Society and the Bar Council. It will also accredit professional training and is expected to have seven lay members, including a lay chairperson and four nominees from the Bar Council and the Law Society.
The authority will be appointed by the Government and its members would have to meet criteria laid down by the legislation. Mr Shatter described as “insulting” any suggestion that it would be controlled by him and said its independence would be stated in the legislation.
However, director general of the Law Society Ken Murphy said this model of regulation was completely different from that proposed by the Competition Authority in its 2006 report and was being introduced without explanation or consultation.
This model, he said, had been examined in England and Wales. But it was rejected as too expensive and threatening to the independence of the professions. He said State agencies were involved in 50 per cent of cases before the courts.
“The legal profession must be independent of Government. There is no incentive to control the costs of regulation if the professions are not involved in it,” he said.
Chairman of the Bar Council Paul O’Higgins said he was waiting to see the Bill before commenting.
The consumers’ association said the legal professions had been sheltered and welcomed the transparency being introduced by the Bill.