The Bar Council is to introduce a scheme whereby deserving cases will get the services of top barristers free. In a move clearly aimed at improving the public image of the profession, seen to be damaged by the huge fees paid to those involved in the Beef Tribunal, the representative body for barristers is to set up a pro bono scheme under which leading barristers will be allocated to deserving cases of people who could not otherwise afford them.
The chairman-elect of the Bar Council, Mr John MacMenamin, told the Irish Times that this was one of the measures being taken by the council under his chairmanship. Others include the completion of the council's building programme in Church St., Dublin.
Already an informal system operates whereby senior barristers agree to take on cases for no fee - unless they win, and costs are awarded to their client. Cases taken on this basis have included that of a whooping cough vaccine victim, Kenneth Best, and that of Mr John Hanrahan, the Tipperary farmer who sued the chemical company, Merck Sharpe and Dohme, for damage to his farm. Both were taken by Mr Dermot Gleeson, who represented Mr Larry Goodman in the Beef Tribunal and later became Attorney General.
Some structure is now to be put on this, and impoverished litigants with a serious grievance against a rich or powerful body may approach the council directly rather than hope their solicitor has access to a leading barrister generous with his or her time.
A sub-committee will be set up to consider any such approach, according to Mr MacMenamin, and it will select a number of "deserving cases", particularly those which raise important principles of justice. The committee will find a solicitor to set up the case and will nominate a barrister to take it without a fee. Clearly, it will only select cases it considers have a chance of winning, so the barrister will have a chance of getting his or her costs eventually.
"It is anticipated that all barristers will want to sign on for the scheme," said Mr MacMenamin.