Sir, – The decision by the Law Society to ban a solicitor from acting for both sides in property transactions is both welcome and long overdue (Home News, July 14th).
Elder abuse affects one in 20 older people: financial abuse is one of its most common manifestations, and many clinicians are aware of cases where property has been inappropriately transferred by an often vulnerable older person with a single solicitor acting for both parties. In my own practice as a geriatrician, I have had a number of such instances, some with quite tragic consequences.
It is far better to prevent such cases than to try and reverse them when the transfer has occurred, and the insistence on independent advice for each party in such transactions is likely to go a long way towards this goal. The addition of an extra, once in a lifetime, fee for a second solicitor is a modest price to pay for a more widespread assurance that likelihood of financial elder abuse, and its attendant misery, has been reduced for older people in Ireland, now and into the future. – Yours, etc,