Law Society criticises choice of figures in National Competitiveness Council report

A spokesperson for the Law Society told Irish Legal News that it “has consistently criticised” the use of the figures, which the CSO have previously described as “experimental” and to be “treated with caution”.

The comments were made in response to the publication of the NCC’s latest Cost of Doing Business in Ireland report, which states that “prices for legal services did not adjust downwards to the degree that might have been expected” during the recession.

The Law Society said competition between Ireland’s 2,200 solicitor firms maintains “continuing downwards pressure on levels of legal fees”.

The spokesperson added: “At the end of 2014, the Law Society commissioned the leading economic consultancy firm Fitzpatrick Associates to examine existing data from authoritative sources such as the Central Statistics Office and the World Bank. This report was able to go beyond anecdote into hard evidence.

“The report clearly demonstrated the solicitors’ profession has not been sheltered from the economic downturn. For example, the evidence showed that the legal services sector experienced greater declines in gross value added (GVA) than the accounting, real estate and telecommunications sectors between 2008 and 2012.”