More people are entering the legal professions in Ireland, but concerns about high legal costs continue, the Legal Services Regulatory Authority says in its latest report.
The authority also noted some evidence of recruitment and retention challenges in the solicitors profession and concerns about the supply of senior barristers to defend and prosecute criminal cases.
In its annual report on admission policies in the legal professions, published on Wednesday, the authority set out the numbers admitted to practise as solicitors and barristers last year and examined related issues, including legal costs.
It found a continuation of the generally upward trend in the numbers enrolling in professional training for solicitors and barristers and notable increases in the numbers of new entrants to both professions. Ireland now has 3,051 qualified barristers (up 3 per cent) and 11,871 solicitors with practising certificates (up 2 per cent).
In relation to the cost of legal services, the report noted concerns continue to be raised by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council and others about high legal and litigation costs in Ireland.
A report completed this year by Indecon International Consultants for the Department of Justice on models for the control of litigation costs described them as “significant” and said they varied by settlement channel, the authority said. Indecon had found “some evidence that litigation costs in other countries are lower than in Ireland, although causation is difficult to determine”.
The authority noted that Indecon had found an absence of adequate data here concerning legal costs, including data on the components of such costs. Allegations about excessive costs issues featured in 120 of the 1,290 complaints made to the regulator last year, the report noted.
In submissions to the regulator, the Bar Council and Law Society disputed that costs are excessive or unreasonable for the majority of litigants. Other submissions, including from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, urged that to ensure access to justice, the legal aid system must be properly resourced.
Of 561 new trainee solicitors enrolled on the Law Society’s Professional Practice Course last year, nine in 10 were aged 30 or under and 57 per cent were women.
As in previous years, more than eight in 10 new trainees secured training contracts with law firms in Dublin for their two years of in-office training, reflecting the dominance of the capital, and of large law firms, in the legal services market. More than one in five practising solicitors worked in the corporate or public “in-house” sector last year.
The regulator said legal practitioner education here is due to undergo significant changes on foot of recommendations made by it to the Minister for Justice. The Justice Action plan for 2023 provided for proposals to be brought to reform professional legal education, including the introduction of independent oversight for the first time and removal of barriers to becoming a solicitor or barrister.
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