Sir, – I wholeheartedly agree with the comments and opinions of retired judge Deirdre Murphy (“Only paupers and multimillionaires can sue in Irish courts, says retired judge”, Opinion, April 20th).
As a practising solicitor it is my experience that the vast majority of the population cannot afford to litigate privately and especially so in the High Court. The rapidly diminishing practice of law primarily as a vocation rather than as a business is having an adverse effect on community life.
The typical sole practitioner or small law firm engages in a lot of “cross subsidisation”, whereby fee income from the more lucrative areas of practice end up subsidising other clients whose financial circumstances are not good and in certain cases they are not in a position to pay.
The service provided is done in a discreet manner and it is why in rural towns and communities the solicitor still remains a person of respect. The current tendency of the legal profession to adopt the “billable hours” business model is regressive and it is also unfair on younger solicitors who still flock to the big firms where they are over-worked.
A rural solicitor will have a consultation with his/her client whereas one of the behemoth firms – usually acting for an institutional or corporate client – will have a client conference involving a “team” of solicitors. The thought does occur to me, however, that with the rapid advent of AI we may ultimately return to the vocational model of law practice, which is much more human-based and client centric and thus beneficial for society in general. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH O’HARA,
Athenry,
Co Galway.