Madam, - Carol Coulter's report in your edition of February 5th - making it clear that barristers, with the connivance of solicitors, charged for "attendances" in court even though they were not there - may be just the tip of an ugly iceberg.
Questions may need to be asked about a legal system which allows lawyers to be paid for the simple act of a "court attendance" regardless of the quality of work pertaining to a case, or the result. Barristers and solicitors have a lucrative interest in multiple court appearances, rather than results. Is it any wonder our courts have such backlogs?
At every public utterance of disquiet the Law Society of Ireland rolls out various defences of "an honourable profession steeped in a tradition of integrity", or "too few complaints to consider change" and even the latest spin that "the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal is independent of, and not internal to, the Law Society" (Ken Murphy, director general, Law Society of Ireland,February 6th). Unfortunately, all these defences defy one solid legal principle: "It is not merely of some importance, but is of fundamental importance, that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done" (Lord Hewart, 1924).
Clients making complaints to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal are not seen as central to its workings, yet in every serious civil or criminal trial the legal professionals cling to every word a witness says, and publicly exalt the importance of a jury. Yet the public are excluded and seen as unnecessary when legal professionals are being "brought to account". As Carol Coulter's report, the Lynn and Byrne sagas and the many recent letters to this page have all demonstrated, there is an ugly public perception that the quality, efficiency and honesty of service given by many legal professionals is measured not by standards of excellence, but rather by the depths of clients' pockets.
Without a truly independent ombudsman and transparent public involvement in disciplinary matters, Irish legal practitioners will never enjoy unqualified public trust. - Yours, etc,
CIARAN WALSH, Kincora Drive, Dublin 3.