Part 6 of the Legal Services Regulation Act became effective on 7 October 2019. The Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 supersedes the complaints remit of the office of the Independent Adjudicator of the Law Society.  The Law Society continues to deal with complaints made to it before 7 October 2019 and the Act provides that the Society will finish off any complaints made up to this date.  Similar applies to the Independent Adjudicator’s handling of complaints.

The Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 established the Legal Services Regulatory Authority.  Its remit includes responsibility for regulating the provision of legal services by both solicitors and barristers and an independent complaints structure to deal with complaints about professional misconduct to include an independent Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.  The Act is available on http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2015/act/65/enacted/en/pdf and details of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority can be found on http://www.lsra.ie.

Compensation Fund claims

The adjudicative functions of the office of the Independent Adjudicator of the Law Society relating to the Law Society’s Compensation Fund claims do not fall within the remit of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. Therefore the Independent Adjudicator continues to deal with complaints about any decision by the Law Society concerning an application for a grant from the Law Society’s Compensation Fund.