O'Duffy v. Law Society of Ireland

The applicant seeks an order of certiorari to quash a decision of the Compensation Fund Committee � Finance Section of the respondent (the Law Society) dated the 5 th December, 2002, whereby it decided to refer a report of an investigating accountant into the conduct of the applicant to the Disciplinary Tribunal.

Leave was given by O'Donovan J. to seek a variety of other orders in addition to the one to which I have just referred. Counsel for the applicant accepts that these do not fall for consideration. Either they are ancillary to the application for certiorari already referred to or alternatively cannot as a matter of law be granted. Amongst those in this latter category is an application for certiorari to quash the report of the investigating accountant.

Leave was given to pursue a claim for damages. It was agreed that that element of the case would be stood over to abide the result of the application for certiorari .

The applicant is a solicitor who has been in practice for well over twenty years. In 1985 he went into partnership with James Quinn Solicitor and practised under the name of O'Duffy Quinn Solicitors. In July, 1996, that partnership was dissolved. Since that time he has practised as a solicitor under the style of O'Duffy and Associates. That practice is carried on at 10 Blessington Street, Dublin 7.

The subsequent inspections with which this judgment is concerned were not triggered or brought about in any way by reference to this first inspection. The matter is relevant only to demonstrate that the applicant was fully au fait, thanks to his counsel's advice, with his statutory obligations as a solicitor. He also had a familiarity with the procedures followed by an investigating accountant appointed by the Law Society to conduct an inspection of a solicitor's practice.