Lawyers 'blacklisted by abuse groups'

By Se?n McC?rthaigh

GOVERNMENT-funded groups advising British-based survivors of institutional child abuse here have been accused of operating a blacklist of Irish solicitors.

Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) yesterday expressed concern that survivor outreach centres in Britain have been encouraging former residents of orphanages and industrial schools in Ireland to only hire British solicitors.

SOCA's London-based spokesperson, Patrick Walsh, said such people could find themselves at a disadvantage when their case comes before the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) - the body established by the Government to compensate victims of institutional abuse.

Around one-third of more than 7,000 former residents of institutions who have applied to the RIRB are living in Britain. The Department of Education has provided more than e1.7m to fund the services at centres in London, Coventry, Sheffield and Manchester since 2002.

Mr Walsh said it appeared that British outreach services had been actively promoting English law firms to abuse survivors. He claimed such advice had pre-dated the recent controversy surrounding allegations that some Irish solicitors had double-charged abuse survivors.

SOCA claimed the fact that one English legal practice has around 500 clients, who had applied to the RIRB, suggested that they had been "positively encouraged towards that firm".

Mr Walsh said one English solicitor handling such cases had admitted she had no knowledge of the Irish Constitution.

"It is completely alien to such solicitors and consequently a person engaging such a firm cannot exempt them to vindicate their rights under the Constitution," said Mr Walsh.

The average award in cases already finalised by the RIRB is around ?78,000. The average related legal fees paid out is ?10,950 per case. Mr Walsh said compensation levels achieved by British solicitors were "pretty average".

Simon McCarthy, a spokesperson for the outreach service in Coventry, confirmed that the centre was only recommending English-based solicitors to abuse survivors.

He explained this was because of the upcoming closing date of December 15 for applications to be filed with the RIRB.

"We feared that people might miss the deadline as Irish (legal) firms don't generally visit clients here," said Mr McCarthy.

However, John Twomey of the London Irish Survivors Outreach Service said the centre made no recommendations about which solicitors to use.

Several outreach centres admitted they had received complaints from former residents about the quality of service from Irish solicitors.