Madam, - I beg leave to respond to the two letters published in last Friday's edition under the heading "Practices of solicitors". Each letter was an attempt, in its own way, to deflect responsibility for the Byrne/Lynn problems away from the legal profession, where it firmly belongs, to the financial institutions, which are the victims. I feel sure that other victims may eventually emerge.
All the solicitors with whom I have spoken recently are very angry at the alleged behaviour of just two of their colleagues in breaking the essential bond of trust which has existed between lending institutions and the legal profession for a very long time. The system by which solicitors' undertakings are used was designed by lawyers. It appears to have been abused by a tiny minority of lawyers and the legal profession now needs to take full responsibility.
I utterly fail to see any link between the Lynn/Byrne issues and the fees charged by banks for vacate documents, as suggested by Mr Doherty. In time, I believe Mr Crowley will see that financial institutions followed the lending procedures he outlines in his letter, yet have still found themselves unsecured or partly secured. As for his reference to valuations, each valuation report assumes there is good title to the property and ensuring the title is good is the job of the solicitor.
Financial institutions have instigated numerous legal proceedings because they appear not to have the security which was supposed to be there on foot of a solicitor's undertaking. Its is that simple.
Would your contributors agree that it was most unfortunate that Thomas Byrne was allowed to continue to operate as a sole practitioner having been disciplined by the Law Society in 2006 for, among several other breaches of solicitors' rules, allowing a deficit of approximately €1.7 million to have accumulated on his clients' account? - Yours, etc,
M. LEONARD, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - I almost fell off my chair laughing after reading the letter from a solicitor from Greystones in your edition of November 3rd. I don't know how he comes to the conclusion that the "vast majority of his profession remain committed to providing their clients with a professional service and do not have the desire to line their own pockets at their clients' expense".
In my opinion and in the opinion of other people that I have spoken to there is a serious lack of transparency and accountability within the legal profession. They should reassure their clients and the public that they are above board.
This can only be achieved by having an independent system in place to regulate and investigate all activities within this trade similar to the Police Ombudsman. This should be put in place by the public to serve the public and to gauge how truly committed this so-called noble profession is living up to public scrutiny. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK O'CONNOR, Dungarvan, Co Kilkenny.