A chara, - There are lawyers whose primary motivation is greed. There are also health care professionals, educators, engineers, broadcasters and even public sector employees who are similarly motivated.
The portrayal of lawyers as being universally afflicted with a peculiar avarice blissfully chooses to ignore fact.What of the hundreds, if not thousands, of cases undertaken each year on a pro bono basis?
What of the work done, again most often "on the hazard", to vindicate and defend civil rights, from issues of disability and education to obliging the Government to put new European treaties to referendum and preventing the State from looting the public coffers to buy the "correct" result in such referendums.
It is also in the courts that reform of the laws on homosexuality and contraception was advanced.
On the thorny issue of compensation for personal injuries, everyone wants the quantum of damages to be lower, until it comes to their arm or their leg! What is needed in the debate on personal injury awards is honesty - not lawyer bashing. - Is mise,
DÁITHÍ MAC CÁRTHAIGH, Barrister-at-Law, Law Library, Dublin 7.