The Bill providing for a legal services ombudsman is expected to be ready for the opening of the Dáil after Christmas, The Irish Timeshas learned.
This follows the deletion yesterday by the Oireachtas Committee on Justice of the sections of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill dealing with the legal services ombudsman.
The deletion of these chapters of the Bill was one of the amendments agreed by the committee.
The amendments passed yesterday also included one permitting the court to make an order protecting the anonymity of a person involved in proceedings who is suffering from a medical condition, if being identified would cause the person undue stress.
Also included was an amendment allowing those reporting on family law for the Courts Service to have access to relevant documents generated in the course of the case.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform also successfully introduced an amendment allowing a court to question the costs being imposed by a solicitor.
Where it thinks the costs are not justified, the court can refer the matter to the taxing master, or, in a Circuit Court matter, to a county registrar.
The Bill, as amended, now provides for a number of changes in the way civil matters are dealt with by the courts.
These include allowing the Courts Service, rather than the Minister for Justice, to decide on the minutiae of court fees; a modification of the pension provision for judges; the provision of support services for the courts' rules committees and providing for video-linking in court cases.
It also removes the requirement that two-thirds of a committee of the Council of the Law Society of Ireland must be members of the council, and it provides for its complaints committee to have a non-solicitor majority.