The Gazette 1979

DECEMBER 1979

income t o the profession. I t i s obvious that al l their reasonable endeavours are being met with delaying and frustrating measures by certain Governmental Bodies. The unfair treatment meted out to the profession especially when compared with that experienced by the non-professional branches of society — can only induce counter (legitimate) measures by the more independent members of the profession, outside the province of others. As intimated by the undersigned at the last AGM of the Society, i t i s appropriate that a special meeting of members b e called t o consider i f another means o f remuneration should he adopted to by-pass the present cumbersome, expensive and outmoded system of detailed charges. I t i s possible that a revision o f scale charges might also he sought more in keeping with the current economic trends, an d more fairly equaled t o other comparative bodies and factors. Legal Consultative Council — a loose association of Barristers and Solicitors — has taken this initiative t o ascertain th e preliminary views o f members. I f encouraging, it is proposed convening a meeting, within the next two months. Interested members should contact the undersigned. Yours sincerely, T. C. Gerard O'Mahony, Chairman Legal Consultative Council. 22 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 . 10th December, 1979. I T1 Deposit . L iJ Receipts BNP with Trustee Status at BANQUE NATIONALE DE PARIS (Ireland) LTD. Ill Gnftoo Street, Dublin 2

of regulations, bye-laws, rules and orders in force. The elimination of this omission together with the addition of a periodic noter upper which could also cover statutory law and relevant up-to-date case law would render this pub- lication more valuable as a Court reference book, par- ticularly if tables of statutes and case law were included as is normal practice. Mr. Woods's speed in attempting to satisfy the obvious needs that have arisen for reliable guides in the main areas of District Court practice may have resulted in the poor final proof reading but the punctuation and spelling errors contained are not so serious as to render unintelligible the text. It is to be hoped that in time this work will become as of much benefit to the Republic of Ireland practitioner as Wilkinson has to our colleagues in the United Kingdom. John Hooper. Correspondence re: CIVIL LIABILITY ACT, 1961 Dear Sir, I wish to agree very strongly with Mr. John J. Madigan in relation to his letter of the 20th November under the above heading. It is not alone in running down cases that this kind of thing occurs. Personally I was involved i n a tragic accident case in which a young man of eighteen years was killed due to negligence in the course of work. Negligence was not admitted until the day on which the case was for hearing and we found it impossible to convince our client of the fact that £1000 was the maximum payable in this day and age for the loss of a dearly loved son in particu- larly tragic circumstances and due to gross negligence. In view of the fact of his age, possibility of marriage etc., damages on the actuarial side were of course small but the figure was an insult. The lady had suffered severe trauma as a result of her son's death, the factthat only £1000 could b e recovered was a n addition t o that trauma. Having regard to the fact that the act was passed in 1*961 surely the matter should be updated and where the circumstances are out of the ordinary run of negligence and the death i s due to gross negligence a higher sum should be payable than the ordinary run of negligence case. At the very minimum the overall figure should be increased t o £10,000 and this should be given auto- matically with a limited amount left to the jury t o be awarded in particularly bad cases of negligence. Yours faithfully, Daniel D. Shields. Main Street, Loughrea, Co. Galway. 3 January 1980. re: SOLICITORS' REMUNERATION Dear Sir, According t o the recent Summary o f Developments herein, the Society and its Officers have made strenuous efforts, a t least since September 1974, t o rationalise 216

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