The Gazette 1994

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1994

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Deba te on "Capp i ng" Cont inues

were reported in the Irish Independent of 4 December 1993 and the Clare Champion of 10 December 1993. The Judge said that in his view no useful purpose would be served by capping damages. While at times damages might seem to be excessive, he had found that in some cases money regarded as sufficient to ensure care for the rest of a severely injured person's life had later been found to be inadequate because of the high cost of care and hospital treatment. Proposals to cap insurance awards will be put to the Cabinet early in February, according to an article in the Irish Independent of 31 December 1993. The article said that Seamus Brennan, who had already circulated one memorandum on his 'controversial plan', had revised his proposals and these would be discussed at a Cabinet meeting in February. All the national daily newspapers of 7 January 1994, reported that the Law Society was asking the general public to lobby TDs against the proposal. The papers reported that the Society has published a leaflet setting out the arguments against the proposal and that copies had been sent to solicitors throughout the country for distribution to their clients. "leading personal injuries solicitor" Gerard Doherty, said the Corporation was 'wasting' £800,000 in costs for every £1 million awarded against them in negligence cases. Mr Doherty pointed out that in some cases the costs awarded against the Corporation had been 104% of the actual settlements to claimants. "The costs should only be a fraction of this amount. They should only run at 10% - 12% of the cases." He said that the Dublin Corporation - Injury Claims The Irish Independent of 25/27 December 1993, reported that a

high costs were as a result of the difficult and expensive procedures that the Corporation insisted on going through in cases where its liability was manifest.

The proposal to introduce legislation which would limit the amount that could be paid in compensation for pain and suffering in personal injury awards continued to receive attention in the media during the month of December and in the New Year. The Irish Times and the Irish Independent of 2 December 1993, reported on replies by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Ruairi Quinn, to Dail questions, in which the Minister said that personal injury compensation represented 67% of the cost of motor insurance claims in 1991. The Minister said he was considering a proposal to allow him to have a function in the cost of pain and suffering compensation in personal injury claims. He was not suggesting, he said, that there should not be recourse to the Courts for those personal injury claims which could not be resolved between the parties involved but he believed that the reduction of the cost of pain and suffering compensation required an initiative by the legislature. Member's motion on the high level of insurance costs was reported in the Irish Times of 2 December 1993. The Minister of State for Commerce and Technology, Seamus Brennan, said the situation was critical and it was now up to Irish society to decide what it wanted to do. Did it want Irish business to continue paying out £400 million or so a year? If so, then the Irish public would have to realise that the cost of insurance claims would have to be borne by individuals. Remarks by the President of the High Court, Mr. Justice Liam Hamilton, in which he stated that it was not the size of court awards in personal injury cases that was creating a problem but the number of claims, A debate in the Seanad on a Progressive Democrats Private

Solicitors Bill

The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Willie O'Dea, said that the new Solicitors Bill, which would tackle 'shoddy' work and overcharging by solicitors, would be introduced early in the New Year and that he was considering extending the legislation on cover barristers. Mr. O'Dea was interviewed on the Morning Ireland programme on Monday 13 December and his views were also reported in the Irish Independent and the Evening Herald of that day. He said that the Bill would give the Law Society extensive new powers to deal with overcharging, "cutting corners", shoddy work and unnecessary delays. The Minister said that the solicitors' profession itself would have to recognise that there was an over supply of solicitors and that 5,000 were too many for a country the size of Ireland. He said that he was in favour, in principle, of a cap on the amount of compensation that would be paid on any one claim on the Society's Compensation Fund but that he was trying to balance the Society's demand for a cap against the need to protect the public. Brian Dowling, political reporter, Irish Independent, reported on 4 January 1994, that a provision which would allow the Law Society to limit access to the solicitors' profession by setting a competitive entrance examination had been rejected by the Government, and instead the Minister for Justice would be reviewing all options taking into account the manner in which other professions, Education and Admissions Policy

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