Legal Reform - Solicitors' Accounts to be supervised by the Authority

[Brendan Burgess]

Section 37 gives the Authority the responsibility for supervising the accounts of legal practitioners and provides for the establishment
and maintenance of a system for the supervision of those accounts by the Authority.

Section 39 provides for the distribution of moneys in a legal practitioner’s client account or accounts in cases of bankruptcy or
insolvency. Specifically, it provides that if the money in the client account or accounts is less than the total amount owed to the legal
practitioner’s clients, it will be divided proportionately amongst the clients (including any person who is due a refund of a deposit) based
on the amounts owed to them.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

This is part and parcel of having a regulatory function.

But what about the compensation fund run by the Law Society at present?

They might object to paying out compensation for a solicitor who defrauds clients on the grounds that the Authority did not supervise that solicitor properly. At the moment, the Law Society can't object as it supervises and compensates.