The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

NOVEMBER 1996

the hospital that it can only encash the cheque if it is prepared to accept it in full and final settlement of all claims which it has in respect of maintenance charges. The letter should also provide that if the hospital is not prepared to accept the cheque in full and final settlement, then the cheque should be returned to the solicitor, who will then give it to the client and leave the hospital to deal directly with the client. Obviously there is an attraction from the hospital's viewpoint in receiving payment through the solicitor, Clearly the present uncertainty needs to be resolved without delay and it is hoped that the decision in Crilly v Farrington will have this effect. If uncertainty continues to exist after this decision, pressure should be brought to bear on the Minister for Health to introduce regulations which set out clearly a fixed "average daily cost" to be charged in road traffic accident cases. without the necessity of pursuing collection and recovery against the client.

London charity ball

Cliona O Tuama being thanked by Roddy Bourke (McCann FitzCerald) for the organisation of the recent London Bar Association's Ball.

The Irish Solicitors' Bar Association, London, held its seventh annual charity ball at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington last month. The event raised a total of £15,000 for the NSPCC. This year there was a record attendance from Dublin solicitors' firms, with corporate tables hosted by Dillon Eustace, A&L Goodbody, McCann FitzGerald, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, Beauchamps, Philip Lee & Associates, Mason Hayes & Curran and O'Donnell Sweeney.

The charity auction raised £8,000, while a raffle for two return tickets to New York (donated by Aer Lingus) raised over £2,000. The money raised from the charity ball will be used by the NSPCC to help fund its sexual abuse unit at the East London Children and Families Centre. The charity balls have raised a total of £60,000 over the last seven years. Cliona O'Tuama, President, Irish Solicitors' Bar Association, London.

References

1. 112 Seanad Debates Col. 191. 2. Judgment delivered 26 August 1992. 3. Judgment delivered 10 May 1993. 4. Judgment delivered 24 November 1993.

Keenan Johnson is a member of the Law Society's Litigation Committee.

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Corporate and Public Services Solicitors' Association Anne Counihan, Head of Legal and Corporate Affairs at the National Treasury Management Agency, has services sectors networking with each other so that when support was needed, Management Ltd; Patrick C Burke, Irish Pensions Trust Ltd; Patricia O'Shea, IBM Ireland Ltd; Caroline Conway, La Touche Bond Salon Training Ltd; Ethna

it was available. This sector now accounts for the employment of 500 solicitors.

been elected as President of the Corporate and Public Services

McDonald, Waterford Crystal pic; David O'Hagan, Cork Corporation; John McDaid, Legal Aid Board; Sile Larkin, Legal Aid Board; Maria Brown, Chief State Solicitor's Office; Declan Sherlock, Revenue Commissioners; Barry Donoghue, Office of the Director

Solicitors' Association (CPSSA). The inaugural meeting of the Association was held in Blackhall Place on Wednesday, 23 October 1996. Approximately 100 solicitors attended the meeting. In her address to the meeting, Anne Counihan stressed the importance of solicitors in the corporate and public

Council of the CPSSA 1996/97 President: Anne Counihan, National Treasury Management Agency Vice-President: Tom O'Donoghue, Galway County Council Hon Treasurer: Martin Sills, Trustee Savings Bank Council members: Deirdre Leahy, ACC Bank pic; Orla O'Neill, LGT Asset

of Public Prosecutions; Martin O'Donoghue, Kerry Group pic.

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