Scumbag, corrupt, conman: just some of the colourful terms used recently to describe Irish solicitors, much to the hurt and fury of the legal community. So affronted are some lawyers, in fact, that they’ve decided to take desperate measures: they’re suing the pants off their detractors.
Lawyers like to see themselves as they were portrayed in the movie Evelyn: intellectual heroes who right wrongs and champion the oppressed. But damning verdicts are being handed down by users of Rateyoursolicitor.com, a website that invites consumers to evaluate their legal representatives. Modelled on Ratemyteachers, it was launched by a group campaigning for reform of the legal profession. While the venture’s roots lie in disgruntlement, Rateyoursolicitor.com does feature a hall of fame teeming with testimonies from satisfied customers.
It’s the website’s hall of shame that has enraged lawyers. Here unhappy clients — most of them anonymous — post detailed and often scathing assessments of legal firms and individual solicitors. Some reviews allege criminal malpractice.
Several of the companies slated claim that their critics are envious competitors or resentful ex-employees. Following “forensic trawls” by investigators, these firms say they’ve tracked down the offenders and launched defamation proceedings.
The determination of legal firms to protect their good name is impressive. However, it contrasts sharply with the wider profession’s apparent slowness to clear its collective name by rooting out lawyers who’ve been involved in a despicable crime — the embezzlement of compensation paid to victims of institutional abuse.
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Last week the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal censured Michael JP Buggy, a Kilkenny solicitor found to have improperly handled his client’s compensation claim against the state and to have double-charged for his services. Almost a year after the exposure of the overcharging scandal, when dozens of credible allegations of lawyer misconduct were aired in the media, Buggy is the only solicitor to have been sanctioned by the profession.
The Law Society, happy to condemn the internet taunts, claims it “inappropriate” to comment on this matter. Name-calling, it seems, is the only way to get a response out of these people.
They can put the whinge in drinking
It must surely be only a matter of time before the Irish drink industry starts mass-producing an alcopop called Crocodile Tears. Nobody feigns concern about underage drinking better than the professional mouthpieces of the booze business. In recent years, they have become extremely skilled at pushing a commercial agenda under the guise of social responsibility.
Take the Beverage Council of Ireland (BCI), which last week condemned the sale of cheap lager in supermarkets because of its accessibility by teenagers. Council president Edward McDaid complained that “four young people can each put a fiver into a kitty and buy a case of beer”.
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The BCI is the representative body of beverage suppliers, manufacturers and wholesalers. Tight with the vintners and off-licence merchants, it is less tight with the supermarket multiples through which its members make a much smaller margin. The group’s antagonism towards the growing availability of cut-price and often imported beer is, therefore, entirely self-serving.
Ultimately, the cynicism of such tactics undermines efforts to tackle alcohol abuse. It also robs the industry lobby of all credibility. Eventually, no matter how sincere its intentions, every proposal it makes will seem like yet another rum punch.