The Gazette 1992

GAZETTE

P R

I D E N T S

APRIL 1992

M

Independent Advice on the Line

In his address to the parchment ceremony on 10 April, Law Society President. Adrian Bourke, strongly attacked provisions in the Solicitors

building societies and trust corporations.

Employment "These particular provisions of the Bill have been debated by two general meetings of the Society, held in November and December, 1991. The Council has debated the provisions. Bar Associations, all 26 of them throughout the country, have considered these sections. They are universally viewed as detrimental to the legal profession which you are joining today. They are unnecessary, they are an intrusion, and they are unwanted, because they seek to assuage a public demand which is not evident. They hand over to banks and building societies an area where citizens require great privacy, skilled assistance and independent advice. Can the financial conglomerates be trusted now to do a day's work, not to go on strike - something which lawyers have never done in the history of the State? These provisions have the potential to leave the industry and business of solicitors' practices devastated throughout the land, with unemployment likely for solicitors and for their worthwhile and loyal staff in their offices in every parish. This is not an alarmist view, it is an inevitable fact. " The Law Society calls on all its members to use their combined influence to make it clear to members of the Oireachtas that these provisions are unjust and unnecessary and should be dropped from the Bill. For its part, the

(Amendment) Bill. 1991 on conveyancing and probate flnestioning the Government's

motivation and whether there was any public demand for these services Í9_be provided by financial institutions. " The Solicitors Bill, 1991, now being debated in the Oireachtas, causes me a degree of sadness. I can celebrate the good points, which the Society first sought when it asked the Government to bring in the Solicitors Bill and indeed presented Government with the bones of that Bill on which flesh was to be put. "But it is my duty, as President of this Society, to draw to your attention some of the more difficult and worrying issues that loom over your legal lives, even as you start them today. "There has been nothing, of which I am aware, since I first entered legal hfe in 1965, which has indicated to Government that, in the areas of conveyancing and probate lawyers are anything other than competent. There have been no outrageous Prices charged, there have been no scandals, the countryside is not littered with bad titles and from my researches I am unaware of any public demand for these services to be provided by any persons other than lawyers. " I would remind you at this point that we do not sell money, we do not run credit cards, or building societies, or life assurance, or travel agencies, nor do we seek to extract teeth, do veterinary medicine on

Adrian Bourke

small animals or take out your appendix!

Law Reform "But we are good at conveyancing and probate. We have been trained, well trained, at great expense. There are fine legal offices throughout this State, carefully honed to look after our clients' interests in those areas. We have available to us, within the Bar Library, able barristers, junior and senior alike, capable of rendering expert advice to us in these matters, or assisting us should we come to a court situation in either conveyancing or in probate. Many of the laws of Ireland, in these areas, have been developed within those very courts, while our legislators and Governments have failed to provide the reforms really needed, especially in land law. "Then, the Fair Trade Commission sat, first with a membership of three, then the participation of two, and finally a report. This report, in which there was disagreement on key issues, says that conveyancing and probate should be more competitive, reflecting the trend in England. Must we always slavishly follow as John Bull's Other Island the failed Thatcher policies? Government, in its wisdom, has resolved to hand these services on a plate to banks,

Society continues to lobby strenuously on your behalf and on behalf of the public's right to independent legal advice''.

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