Sir, – Your Editorial (December 4th) suggests the Law Society should find a way of compensating the victims of Thomas Byrne's crimes for the consequential loss they suffered; citing that a surgeon's insurance would probably have to cough up to cover the total life-time loss of earnings of a patient whose wrong leg he or she cut off.
Neither former solicitor Thomas Byrne nor the Law Society have any control over the operation of the property market, which might equally well have improved rather than fallen during the period in which the victims were stuck in legal limbo, as your editorial puts it.
What if the value of the properties had increased? Would one have expected his clients to refund the increase in value to the Law Society in partial compensation of the €8.3 million which it paid out? I think not.
One has every sympathy for Thomas Byrne’s victims, but while there is a direct connection between the wrong amputation and the consequent reduction in ability of the patient to earn, there is no such direct connection between Thomas Byrne’s activities and the behaviour of the property market, and the consequent loss sustained by his unfortunate clients.
Having said that, I agree with your Editorial that it would be compassionate and appropriate if the Law Society could find a way, in spite of its statutory mandate, of making ex gratia payments to Thomas Byrne's victims. – Yours, etc,
JOHN SHEEDY,
Pine Valley Park,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.