Why do lawyers pile more harm on abuse victims?

Liam Fay:


The lawyers want us all to calm down. They deplore the rush to judgment, the atmosphere of hysteria created by a reckless media. They haven?t said it yet, but what m?learned friends really object to is the mood of, well, ambulance chasing.
Nothing has been more instructive about the scandal of the legal scam perpetrated on survivors of institutional abuse than the reaction of the legal profession itself. All week, thanks to Joe Duffy?s Liveline, we have heard damning stories from people who claim that compensation awards by the Residential Institutions Redress Board have had hefty ?fees? deducted by solicitors who had already been paid.

Some say they?ve been ripped off for thousands, others for hundreds. But what unites all those who have come forward is a sickening feeling of outrage at what appears to be the organised exploitation of the vulnerable by some of the country?s most privileged professionals. Having been abused by men of the cloth, these unfortunate individuals now find themselves abused by men (and indeed women) of silk.

In response, the Law Society has treated us to the full range of courtroom ploys. We?ve had the ostentatious indignation, the deft attempt to change the central issue, the splitting of hairs in the name of fair procedure. Most of all, we?ve had the accusation that this case is being heard in a prejudicial environment in which hard facts are being overwhelmed by heated emotion.

In reality, however, it?s difficult to consider the evidence without a little steam emanating from the ears. Mary Hanafin, the education minister, has revealed that the cost of the compensation scheme for victims of institutional abuse will be at least ?800m and could be considerably higher.

At ?800m, the agreed payout to solicitors is estimated at ?100m. Yet even a honey pot of this magnitude is apparently insufficient for the rapacious Irish law industry.

Ironically, of course, lawyers are the last people who can credibly call for calm. What has happened with the redress board is entirely in keeping with the feverish no-foal-no-fee culture, which has been fostered by the legal profession, as solicitors compete to take compensation actions on the basis that they will get a ?cut? of the ultimate settlement rather than merely a fee for their services.

When the ambulance chasing starts, it soon becomes a race to the bottom.