The Gazette 1979

SEPTEMBER 1979

GAZETTE

and where necessary stronger action has been taken to ensure that the certificates are brought up to date. As a result only twenty-two are now seriously in arrears and all these are under active consideration by the Committee. Members are reminded that where an Accountant's Certificate is in arrears, the Society will not issue the Practising Certificate for the current year and this holds very severe implications for members. Members will, therefore, ensure that the fullest steps are taken to see that their Accountant's Certificate is up to date and when their audit is finished they should check with their accountants to see that the certificate has been sent in. Any member experiencing difficulty in this regard should refer to the Society and again the Society is deeply indebted to its staff and in particular the services of Mr. Connolly and Mr. Healy who deal with this area for the Committee and who have both proved most helpful, not only to the Committee but also to people seeking the assistance of the Society with regard to these matters. 3.5 The Committee has also been paying very considerable attention to the up-dating of the solicitors' roll with a view to establishing with certainty the names of all solicitors who are practising in the State. Various difficulties arose because of people changing jobs or getting married or dying and during the year a major effort has been made to up-date the roll. It would be hoped that this work would be completed by early next year and already 178 people have been discovered who did not hold Practising Certificates. All these have been written to and arrangements had been made to collect arrears. It is a popular misconception that a person does not require a Practising Certificate if they are not appearing in Court but merely working in die office. This is not correct and any solicitor who is doing the work of a solicitor is required to take out a Practising Certificate and is liable to prosecution if the certificate is not taken out for the current year. 3.6 The Committee has held numerous meetings during the year and, as Chairman, I am indebted for the assistance and support of my colleagues in the completion of work which is both time consuming and onerous and particular thanks are also to be returned to Mr. Ivers, the Director General, to Mr. Doyle and Mr. Burke, to Mr. Connolly and to Mr. Healy, and to all the secretarial staff which assisted the Committee in their work during the year. 4.1 I am happy to say that progress has been made in the building up of the compensation fund during the year. After payment of the contribution towards the over- heads of the Society, the surplus of income over expenditure was £104,980. The fund now stands at £768,654. Claims during the year only totalled £1,937 and refunds achieved the considerable total of £29,936. The policy of the Committee is to spend a lot of time and effort both on the part of the members of the Committee and in particular of the officials of the Society in main- taining, protecting, administering the fund. In previous years it was the policy to bring in outside accountants if a solicitor had a financial complaint against him. This work is now dealt with by the officers of the Society and a considerable portion of the time of Mr. Ivers, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Healy, Mr. Burke and Mrs. Fallon are spent following-up the claims, pursuing Accountants' Certificates in arrears, pursuing Practising Certificates in arrears, investigations, daily collection and banking of compensation fund receipts, servicing of the Interview Board, Registrar's, Disciplinary and High Court work and all book-keeping and accounting in connection therewith. The policy of the compensation fund is, therefore, that a section of each of the salaries and the overheads relating thereto should be charged against the fund and the charge this year amounted to 5.2% of the fund or the sum of £40,000. This is a lesser figure than that applied by the Scottish or English Law Societies and is a policy which is endorsed by the Council of the Law Society and having regard to the low level of claims over the last few years has proved very beneficial to the Society and the Committee is indebted for the excellent work carried out by the before-mentioned staff members. 4.3 An item of irritation to members is the feeling of the Council which has lasted for a considerable period that payment will not be made agdnst a solicitor who has defaulted unless all legal remedies have been exhausted. This includes having a judgment marked and having the solicitor adjudicated a bankrupt. It should be stressed that this has proved a very helpful rule from the Society's point of view because of refunds obtained at a later date. However, it is appreciated that this is irritating when there is a small claim against a Solicitor and it is not worth while having the solicitor adjudicated a bankrupt for the 4.2

COMPENSATION COMMITTEE

Thomas D. Shaw

Chairman

Andrew J. Donnelly Thomas J. Fitzpatrick John P. Hooper Carmel S. Killeen Patrick O'Connor Michael V. O'Mahony Laurence K. Shields Andrew F. Smyth Moya Quinlan

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