Minister's role in operation of legal regulator highlighted

COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE, DEFENCE AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS:THE LEVEL of involvement by the Minister for Justice in the operation of the proposed regulatory authority for the legal profession will be far higher than that seen in the regulation of other professions, according to the Competition Authority.

Its chairwoman, Isolde Goggin, was speaking to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Women’s Rights on the Legal Services Regulation Bill yesterday. She said appointments to the new body should ensure it was seen to be independent of the Minister.

Noeline Blackwell of the legal rights organisation, Flac, told the committee that the Bill should be expanded to tackle inefficiencies in the legal system, to ensure that people taking public interest cases were not penalised by costs, to tackle lack of resources in the Legal Aid Board and allow appeals against adjudications of bodies like the Financial Services Ombudsman go to the Circuit Court rather than the High Court.

She also said that the new authority should be in line with the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, and therefore fully independent of the Government. The structure should represent key stakeholders who have an interest in legal services.

Conor Maguire, chairman of the Council of the King’s Inns, said that it had reformed its provision of legal education in 2004 and now provided intensive, interactive, practical and focused professional training.

Speaking on behalf of the Bar Council, David Barniville SC said the Minister had not carried out a regulatory impact assessment of his proposals. The Bar Council had commissioned its own, which concluded that the regulatory cost of the new regime would be between €5.3 and €8.6 million more than the existing system, and this would have to be borne by practitioners and passed on to clients.

Donald Binchy, president of the Law Society, said the society had recently changed its position on handling complaints against solicitors; it now accepted these should be handled by an independent body, provided it adhered to fair procedures and ensured that the majority of complaints were resolved by agreement, as now.

Michael Meegan of Mandate trade union, representing those working in regulation in the Law Society, appealed for an amendment to the Bill to ensure union members would be transferred to the new body, rather than being replaced by civil servants.