Amy Molloy: 'The public will lose faith in any watchdog that repeatedly refuses to acknowledge a problem exists in its profession'

Persistent: Reporter Amy Molloy has had her requests for comment from the Law Society rebuffed repeatedly

Amy Molloy Twitter Email

December 09 2019 02:30 AM

When given evidence of a solicitor bragging about how two clients had bogus claims dismissed and didn't have to pay costs, the Law Society of Ireland said it couldn't comment on specific cases.

When asked if it would be concerned by a different solicitor referring all his clients to the same GP to have medical reports prepared, the society said it couldn't comment on hypothetical cases.

But when asked if any lawyer had ever been investigated for knowingly helping a client bring an exaggerated claim, the legal watchdog was emphatic in its response.

"No solicitor has ever been investigated for knowingly helping a client bring an exaggerated claim," it said. But just because nobody has been investigated for something, does that mean it isn't happening?

Sometimes asking the society to comment on our personal injury system can feel a bit like interviewing Arsene Wenger.

The former Arsenal manager would famously say: "I didn't see it" when asked about a controversial moment in a game.

He later admitted to a French newspaper that he pretended not to have seen certain incidents to protect his players.

The Law Society isn't pretending not to see things, however it is refusing to acknowledge that there are a small number of solicitors who are fuelling Ireland's compensation culture.

The society insists that it is up to judges to refer matters if he or she suspects a solicitor may have knowingly helped a client to bring an exaggerated claim. To date, no judge has ever felt the need to do this.

Watchdogs are put in place to keep those under its umbrella in check.

But the public quickly loses faith in a watchdog which time and time again refuses to comment or acknowledge there may be a problem with some members of a profession.

Take for example personal injury claims which are thrown out of court after the defence provides social media pictures showing a person participating in an activity weeks after they allegedly suffered a 'life-changing injury'. The Law Society has repeatedly argued that clients must swear an affidavit verifying their claims and therefore the solicitor had to take their client at their word.

But that's a bit like a journalist printing a story without doing any fact-checking of their own.

We journalists have to corroborate.

Yet even when the medical evidence is sketchy or a client seems to be extremely accident prone, some solicitors don't seem to ask the important questions.

The legal and insurance sectors are so busy pointing the blame at each other that they're failing to look at the problems closer to home.

And in the meantime, the public is being forced to pay extortionate premiums and businesses are continuing to close.

The Law Society needs to stop sticking its head in the sand and acknowledge that ambulance chasing is happening - and try to do something about it.

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Amy Molloy: 'The public will lose faith in any watchdog that repeatedly refuses to acknowledge a problem exists in its profession'

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