The Gazette 1995

I

M

W A

H

OCTOBER 1995

GAZETTE

Law Society "sick of being made a scapegoat" by Dublin Corporation

the Corporation with "unethical vigour" and insisted that the Law Society needs to "get its house in order" on what he saw as a moral issue. The same Irish Times article reported the Law Society's Director General, Ken Murphy, as unrepentant about the role of his members in giving the Corporation a hard time. "We totally reject the notion that there are a lot of spurious claims being made, and we are sick of the Law Society being made a scapegoat by bodies like Dublin Corporation. We have repeatedly asked Noel Carroll to show us evidence of solicitors bringing false claims to the Corporation with little or no response."

have to do to protect themselves is provide reasonable care."

On both the pages of the Irish Times and the Gerry Ryan Show on RTE Radio recently, Dublin Corporation's spokesman, Noel Carroll, made allegations of "unethical" conduct by solicitors. However, he failed to either produce evidence to support the allegations or withdraw them

The Gerry Ryan Show

On the day following the Irish Times article, Noel Carroll gave a live telephone interview to RTE Radio l ' s Gerry Ryan Show. He complained of a claims culture " of epidemic proportion" and which had "run off the Richter scale". He stood by his quoted remarks in the Irish Times about claims being pursued with "unethical vigour" by solicitors. Gerry Ryan quoted to him Ken Murphy's demand that Mr. Carroll produce evidence of these allegations. Mr. Carroll implicitly rejected any responsibility to do this with the words "that's real legal talk".

as subsequently demanded by Law Society Director General, Ken Murphy.

Noel Carroll - "unethical

vigour"

of

solicitors

The Irish Times

In an Irish Times article, the first of a two-part series entitled 'The Compensation Carousel'; Mr. Carroll was reported as saying that Dublin Corporation's annual damages bill had already climbed to £6m in the current year. "We have taken a two-pronged approach to defending ourselves" he continued. "Firstly, we are keeping records of everything we do and how often we do it. But we have also been very vigorous in our criticism of the 'no foal no fee' system offered by solicitors and of things like the lack of censure for false claims".

Gerry Ryan - Quoted demand

for

evidence

Ken Murphy - "Noel Carroll should

put

"The no-fee system is not only perfectly legitimate, it is absolutely necessary in the absence of any civil legal aid scheme, to provide access to justice for people who have suffered injury through the negligence of others", Ken Murphy continued. "The employers and public bodies who are complaining so loudly now are suffering because they got away with low standards for so long. All they

up or shut up"

On the following day, Ken Murphy gave a 20-minute interview to the Gerry Ryan Show in which he outlined the copious evidence of low standards of health and safety in the workplace and on the roads in Ireland. He contended that Ireland suffers from a "negligence culture and not a claims culture".

Mr. Carroll proceeded to accuse solicitors of pursuing claims against

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