The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

APRIL /MAY 1996

very mild criticisms, primarily three suggestions for improvements, which it contained. All of the newspaper reports made liberal use of the statistics in the lay members' report, usually recording the total number of complaints made to the Society in the year in question at 1,350 although omitting the fact that nearly 20% of these where inadmissible (on such grounds as that they were complaints about barristers or judges and not about solicitors). "Complaints against solicitors total 1,350" was the headline in the Irish Independent. "Law and disorder as clients complain" was the Daily Star headline while the Examiner chose the rather confusing if not downright misleading "Law Society backs 81% of complaints". procedure - extra measures to protect clients at risk". By way of balance, however, all except the Daily Star recorded the estimate by the Society's Director General that less than half of one per cent of matters dealt with by solicitors gave rise to complaints by clients. unreserved acceptance of the integrity of the Society's complaints handling system and quoted Ken Murphy on the Society's commitment to protect the public against the small percentage of solicitors who fail to maintain the highest professional standards in their dealings with clients. The Irish Times led with "Law Society to improve complaints The Irish Times and Irish Independent also recorded the lay members' It is the end of a working day and the Law Society Director General is going out the front door of Blackhall Place when he is called back to take a phone call. The Morning Ireland office is on the line. "Have you heard what the Irish Hospital Consultants are saying about the solicitors profession?" A little over twelve hours later and Ken Murphy is sitting in the Morning Ireland studio beside Finbarr Fitzpatrick, Secretary General of the (c) 'Pistols at Dawn' with the Doctors on Morning Ireland

Irish Hospital Consultants Association. David Hanley begins the interview with a quote from the IHCA press release. "Ambulance Chasing Lawyers whose billboard publicity campaigns, full page advertising and self promotion as experts in medical litigation entice the public to enter medical malpractice claims regardless of their merit are costing the tax payer £20m per year . . ." "The IHCA are engaged in something of a scatter-gun attack about the "crass exploitation and misleading of the public by the maverick tactics of some solicitors". Mr Fitzpatrick alleges, without indicating his source or evidence, that legal costs in this jurisdiction are four times higher than in the UK and that the medical profession here is four times more likely to be sued, although his main objection is to solicitors advertising for compensation cases and generally "encouraging litigation". David Hanley turns to Ken Murphy who replies with feeling. "Solicitors are very disappointed and surprised at this kind of tabloid attack by a responsible group of people like the medical profession. Frankly, solicitors are sick and tired of being made scapegoats by doctors for the problems of medical negligence. If there is a high level of medical negligence claims it is because there is a high level of injuries caused by negligent medical practitioners. A key point is that the cases are not invented by solicitors. They cannot be proceeded with without a written opinion from an independent medical expert to the effect that there are good grounds for believing there has been medical negligence on the facts of the case". Hanley presses on the advertising. "Does it not constitute incitement?" Murphy - only less than half of one per cent of the firms in Dublin city and county take the large-scale ads in the Yellow Pages which are being complained of. I do not know how this can be said to have any substantial effect on the number of medical negligence claims".

more statistics. In ten years a consultant's annual medical

malpractice insurance subscription has gone from £800 up to £30,000. The Law Society should review its policy on advertising which is contributing to a waste of taxpayers money and putting some consultants out of business. Medical review panels should, at least as an initial step, replace the courts. David Hanley allows Ken Murphy the final word as follows "if there is an increase in medical negligence claims, it is not because a small number of solicitors are now advertising. It is because we are a more mature society, less deferential to the medical profession and more likely to question when things go wrong". On return to Blackhall Place, the "reviews" in the form of telephone and fax messages from members of the legal profession are complimentary but from some members of the medical profession are bordering on the abusive. The interview is essentially reprised on the telephone that afternoon for the Examiner where it is published the next day, 20 April 1996, under the headline "Lawyers Reject 'Ambulance Chaser' Claim". As David Hanley would say, "quite". • Younger Members Commi t tee Questionnaire Attention!!! All those qualified within the last five years You will by now have received your questionnaire from the Younger Members Committee concerning such issues as salaries, employment etc. If you have not had the time to

complete and return same - please do so. We very much want to hear your views.

Finbarr Fitzpatrick counters with

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