The Gazette 1995

GAZETTE

MAY/JUNE 1995

It was reported in the Irish Times Business Supplement on 26 May that solicitors are not to be included in the Bill.

article stated that the Law Society is horrified at the idea of eliminating pain and suffering. "That is asking the victim to pay the price for satisfying a powerful interest group," says Ken Murphy, Law Society. The article continued to say that the real problem is not at compo - culture but a negligence culture, he believes. "We have been far too tolerant of low standards of health and safety in the workplace and bad driving on the roads. The main reason that insurance is expensive is not that awards are too high or that solicitors by advertising their services can promote a claim culture. The reason is that far too many accidents are caused by negligence". The article stated that Ken Murphy agreed that high insurance costs are a problem but the solution is not to reduce compensation to victims of negligence. An article was published in the Irish Independent on Friday 12 May 1995 on the Compensation Fund. The article gave information about how the Compensation Fund operates. The article quoted Ken Murphy in saying that: "it is not sufficiently recognised in these circumstances that anyone who loses money through the bad practices of a solicitor will be paid in full by the profession. This money is coming directly out of the pockets of solicitors. Individual members of the profession are paying towards the millions which must compensate for dishonesty," he said. The article went on to say that the Law Society maintains that the solicitors profession is "unquestionably" the most regulated profession in the country. The article stated that: in addition to the practising certificate and the annual £1,210 fee for it, seven full- time investigators are in place at the Society's headquarters of Blackhall Place, where they comb through the accounts of the country's 5,000 solicitors practices regularly: "we have seven full-time investigators and they thoroughly check the accounts of each practice at least once every five years," said the spokeswoman for the Society. The Compensation Fund

The legal alternative

Capping

An article was printed in the Irish Times on 18 April 1995 by Kieran Conway with the headline: "Government Now Treads Carefully on the Capping of Insurance Awards." The article stated that the limitation of insurance awards for compensation paid following accidents was raised by the previous Government but has not been pursued in any vigorous way by this Government. The article reported the fact that the Department is commissioning a study of the insurance industry. The article pointed out that the unions are vigorously opposing the proposals. The article reported that according to SIPTU, the proposals flew "in the face of encouraging employers to reduce occupational accidents as the prime means of reducing insurance premiums". It also reported that MSF said that they were a "quick fix solution", that would not work. Fine Gael produced a discussion document that reproduced the arguments being made by the Unions and the law bodies in calling for attention to be focused instead on the cause of the claims - namely the high accident rate both on the roads and in the workplace. The article also stated that Mr. Quinn's speech last October was virtually contemporaneous with a Law Commission report in England which suggested that compensation levels were too low there and in many cases need to be doubled or, in other words pitched at precisely the level being awarded by the Irish Courts. The Dolan, in saying that lawyers are waiting to see what the new Government does. The article went on to say that lawyers believe the issue had not gone away forever but concluded that perhaps not but the present indications are that it has gone away for quite some time. An article was published in the Evening Herald on 10 May 1995 on the issue of compensation claims. The article quoted Law Society spokeswoman, Ms. Catherine

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