Know Your Rights with Femi Daniyan
Free Legal Advice Centres
and other services
Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) is a group that provides free legal advice to members of the public. Flac operates a network of part-time centres throughout Ireland in conjunction with the Citizens Information Board. These legal advice clinics – open in the evenings – are provided by volunteer lawyers, both barristers and solicitors. If you have a legal issue, Flac is a good place to start in order to establish whether or not you have a case. However, Flac do not take on cases so you will still have to engage the services of a solicitor if you are advised to get one.
Unsatisfactory service from a solicitor
Having engaged the services of a solicitor, if you find that his services are unsatisfactory or inadequate, or that his fees are excessive, or you have issues concerning the solicitor’s conduct, there are a number of avenues you may chose to take to resolve the matter.
It is important to endeavour to resolve such matters by first approaching the solicitor in question. There might be a misunderstanding that your solicitor could explain to you. Never underestimate this approach, as it may resolve things very easily.
It is also an option for you to leave your solicitor and engage another. If your matter is already in court and your solicitor is on record for you, you may file a ‘notice of change of solicitor’ at the central office of the High Court or its equivalent for the Circuit or District Courts. Alternatively, your solicitor could file a motion in court to ‘come off record’ in relation to your case. You may wish to instruct another firm of solicitors before you leave your present solicitor, as this is a sensible way to proceed to avoid ending up with no solicitor for any period of time.
If your dispute with your solicitor is one you are unable to resolve directly, you may make a complaint to the Law Society of Ireland. The society investigates complaints against solicitors made by or on clients’ behalf that allege inadequate professional services, excessive fees or misconduct.
The first of these is defined in Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994 as services that are inadequate in any material respect and are not of a quality that could reasonably be expected of a solicitor or a firm of solicitors.
Excessive fees can be dealt with by the society on foot of a complaint from a client of a solicitor (or from any person on behalf of such client, or beneficiary of an estate). In such a situation the client also has the option, within a year of delivery of the bill, of requesting his solicitor to refer the bill to the Taxing Master.
Finally, misconduct is defined as conduct tending to bring the solicitors’ profession into disrepute or the contravention of a provision of the Solicitors Acts 1954-2002, or any order or regulation made thereunder.
It is important to note that complaints to the Law Society must not be made lightly and must always be as a last resort.
Solicitors are there to offer a service to you. If you are aware of your rights and obligations from the beginning of a client-lawyer relationship with a solicitor, you are unlikely to be unhappy or disappointed at the end.
If you are affected in any way by the issues raised in this article and would like legal advice, please consult your solicitor or the Law Society of Ireland.
Femi Daniyan is a barrister who practices in the areas of employment, Immigration, professional negligence, probate, succession and family law amongst other areas. He is an advocate on human rights issues affecting minorities. He holds an MA in International Relations from Dublin City University.
