Updated Compensation Fund regulations
The Regulation of Practice Committee of the Law Society reviewed the Solicitors (Compensation Fund) Regulations 2013, which incorporate the Compensation Fund application form.
The Committee, following its review, made a number of recommendations and these have been incorporated into the Solicitors (Compensation Fund) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 548 of 2018).
The Regulations will come into effect on 1 February 2019.
Changes
There have been two significant changes from the 2013 Regulations:
- Any person proposing to apply to the Law Society for a grant from the Compensation Fund in respect of a loss shall make the application by submission of a completed application form to the Law Society within twelve months after the date when the loss first came to his or her knowledge or within such extended time period as agreed by the Regulation of Practice Committee in accordance with Regulation 4 of the Regulations. This extends the time limit from the previously allowed six months.
- The Regulation of Practice Committee, before deciding whether or not to make a grant out of the Compensation Fund, may request the applicant to bring the facts in connection with his or her claim to the attention of An Garda S铆och谩na. This has the express purpose of providing An Garda S铆och谩na with a comprehensive witness statement to assist in the investigation of allegations of dishonesty against the solicitor in question. This provision has been introduced to prevent or reduce the incidence of possible fraudulent claims on the Compensation Fund and to bring the claims system into line with generally applied insurance claims procedures which require reporting of comparable matters to relevant police authorities.
New form and guide
The Compensation Fund application form is a schedule to the Regulations. It has been revised to ensure more relevant information is obtained from claimants and to make the application form more consumer-friendly, thereby resulting in a speedier claims processing system.
In addition, a new booklet 鈥淕uide to Claiming Refunds of Money Paid to a Solicitor鈥 will be published to assist solicitors and claimants in understanding the claims application processing system.
The new application form must be used for all applications to the Compensation Fund from 1 February 2019.
The Regulations, application form and guide will be available in the Compensation Fund section of the Law Society website - just go to www.lawsociety.ie/compensation-fund.