I have already noted on this blog the comments of Barrett J (pictured left) in Traynor v Guinness UDV Ireland [2015] IEHC 732 (24 November 2015) [1] that “we have now an expensive court system that remains alien to many and truly accessible to increasingly few”. He recently returned to this theme in Burke v Lawless [2016] IEHC 455 (29 July 2016) (emphasis added):

1. In 2010, Ms Lawless engaged a firm of solicitors to do certain work for her. Apart from an initial down-payment of €5,000, she has not paid a cent for the work that followed. That work was not un-extensive. It related to a dispute concerning an auction of certain lands. Ms Lawless maintained that despite being the highest bidder at an auction of the lands, the lands were not sold to her. Legal proceedings were initiated. Junior and Senior Counsel were retained. Eventually, the proceedings settled. But in all the ‘to-ing and fro-ing’, Ms Lawless ran up legal fees of €176,433.65.

2. A comprehensive fee note issued to Ms Lawless on or about 7th November, 2011, and has been placed before the court in evidence. This indicates that the fees payable by Ms Lawless comprise, inter alia, €120k of solicitors’ fees, almost €40k of fees for Senior Counsel, and €24k for junior counsel.

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Hard on the heels of my post on access to justice when legal costs are high come two updates.

First, in the UK, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) has published a position paper, proposing a new simplified model for principles-based regulation of the solicitors’ profession. A timeline of reform of that profession over the last decade is set out in the image at the top left; click on it (or here) for a bigger version.

Second, the Seanad yesterday continued – and came close to completing – its consideration of the Legal Services Regulation Bill, 2011. Given the controversy that has attended earlier stages of this Bill, the lack of fanfare yesterday and today is remarkable. Perhaps this is the way reform now begins, not with a bang but with a whimper.…

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According to Plutarch, in his famous Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, Theseus, mythical king of Athens, after many labours and adventures (shown left), including the slaying of the Minotaur, returned to Athens, where his ship was kept in the harbour as a memorial for several centuries. The Athenians repaired and restored it over time, so that eventually every part of it had been replaced. Theseus’ paradox raises the question of whether something that has had all of its parts replaced remains the same thing. The same conundrum arises with the allegorical axe which has had both its head and its handle replaced several times. The Legal Services Regulation Bill has been amended so much during its labyrinthine journey through the Houses of the Oireachtas that I am reminded of these stories.

Many of its proposals were prefigured by the UK’s Legal Services Act 2007. Writing this morning in the Brief (a daily email newsletter from the Times, which will be made available later in the week here), Dame Janet Paraskeva made two points about the Act which resonate in the context of the current Bill. First, she points out the promise of the Act has not always been fulfilled “not … by any shortcoming in the legislation but by a lack of will to make the practical changes on the ground that would remove obstacles to choice.”…

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