Ruling by Competition Authority now faces Law Society challenge

The Law Society has secured High Court permission to challenge a decision of the Competition Authority which the society has …

The Law Society has secured High Court permission to challenge a decision of the Competition Authority which the society has described as a challenge to "the very existence of the legal profession."

The dispute concerns a decision by the authority regulating how parties appearing at an investigation before the authority may be represented by lawyers.

The Law Society, in a submission to Mr Justice McKenchie yesterday, said it was "resolutely determined to uphold the right of citizens, including those who appear for parties to an investigation by the authority or as witnesses before the authority, to choose their own lawyer".

In an affidavit, Mr Owen M. Binchy, of Charleville, Co Cork, who is senior vice-president of the Law Society, said the society regarded this principle as fundamental to the very existence of the legal profession, and it was not prepared to countenance any "inappropriate limitation or restriction of that right".

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The society was granted leave to seek, by way of judicial review, a declaration that a decision of the Competition Authority of August 4th last was null and void, and had no legal effect. The society alleges the authority purported to confer on itself the power to veto the choice of lawyer made by a party to an investigation. It claims the authority does not have such power.

The authority's guidelines state that the authority's ability to effectively carry out its investigative functions relied heavily on its right to obtain full information and forthright testimony, and statements from persons attending before it without "such efforts being compromised by conflicts which potentially arise where the same lawyer represents more than one person attending before the authority".

The authority on August 4th decided that, where it believes the integrity of its process may be compromised by the same lawyer representing more than one person in any particular matter, it will permit that lawyer to appear before it on behalf of only one of those persons.