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Sunday World
22-07-2025
- Sunday World
Granddaughter ‘heartbroken' after solicitor's misconduct led to OAP's €19k nursing home bill unpaid
Granddaughter of Patrick Barrett was unable to pay the fees from his accounts as an enduring power of attorney order was not executed by Mr Moylan despite being instructed to do so Solicitor John Moylan will be sanctioned by the tribunal in September. Photo: Steve Humphreys Serious failings by a lawyer left an elderly man's granddaughter 'heartbroken' and unable to access funds to pay his nursing home bills. The late Patrick 'Patsy' Barrett, who suffered from dementia and required round-the-clock care, was able to continue living in the nursing home – despite owing up to €19,000 in fees – only due to compassion shown by its operators. The matter has led to two findings of misconduct being made against solicitor John Moylan, who failed to follow Mr Barrett's instructions in 2020 to execute an enduring power of attorney (EPA). Mr Barrett sought the legal instrument so his granddaughter Jacqui Owen could look after his affairs should he become unable to do so himself. Mr Moylan (71) not only failed to provide adequate legal services to Mr Barrett but also to respond adequately or at all to Ms Owen when she asked him to register the EPA with the Registrar of Wards of Court in 2022 after her grandfather lost capacity. It later emerged Mr Moylan had never executed the EPA in the first place in 2020. He failed to engage with the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) when it investigated a complaint made by Ms Owen, while an explanation he gave for his inaction was rejected as 'not credible' by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (LPDT). It left me in a situation where I did not know what would happen to my grandad Mr Barrett died at the nursing home last May at the age of 99. The bill for his stay has yet to be paid. Giving evidence at an LPDT hearing last week, Ms Owen described what had occurred as 'very upsetting' and 'stressful' for her. 'It left me in a situation where I did not know what would happen to my grandad,' she said. Ms Owen said that after six months of chasing Mr Moylan for answers she went to the LSRA, as she was 'exhausted, frustrated and fed up of being led astray and not being told the truth'. The solicitor, of Richard Moylan and Company Solicitors in Mallow, Co Cork, will be sanctioned by the tribunal in September. It is the second serious finding to be made against him by a disciplinary body in the space of just three years. In 2022, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found him guilty of misconduct for falsely claiming to have witnessed the signing of company documents. He was censured and ordered to pay €15,000 to the Law Society Compensation Fund and €15,000 towards the legal costs of Deirdre O'Flynn, the woman whose signature was forged. The solicitor also found himself in hot water last December, when he was arrested and brought by gardaí to the High Court in Dublin after failing to comply with an order requiring him to provide a former client with documents relating to her €1.7m home. Mr Moylan avoided a potential contempt of court sanction, such as imprisonment or a fine, after complying with the order. An LPDT hearing on Thursday was told Ms Owen became her grandfather's carer after his wife Margaret Ellen died in May 2020. She looked after the household, cooked, cleaned, helped Mr Barrett pay his bills, and brought him to medical and legal appointments. That summer, Mr Barrett, who lived in Mallow, went to Mr Moylan's office to swear a new will, leaving his estate to Ms Owen. Previous wills had benefited his children. Solicitor John Moylan will be sanctioned by the tribunal in September. Photo: Steve Humphreys News in 90 Seconds - July 22nd A few weeks later, the pensioner instructed Mr Moylan to execute an EPA that would allow Ms Owen manage his affairs should he lose capacity in future. Regulations required the solicitor to make two relatives other than Ms Owen notice parties to the EPA's creation. The tribunal heard Mr Barrett gave clear instructions that his children Bridget, Patricia and Robert were not to be notified, and that contact should instead be made with other relatives. Mr Barrett's health declined in 2022. That July, he suffered a fall and was hospitalised. It became clear he could not return home, so he was admitted to Bridhaven Nursing Home in Mallow. A doctor's report concluded he lacked capacity to manage his own affairs and this was provided to Mr Moylan. Ms Owen contacted the solicitor and asked him to take the next step in the process, registering the EPA she believed had been executed two years previously. The tribunal heard that nursing home and pharmacy bills were mounting and she was unable to discharge these from Mr Barrett's pension alone. Her grandfather's bank told her it could not give her access to his accounts to pay bills until the EPA was in force. Ms Owen made contact with Mr Moylan by phone and email on at least 10 occasions between August and December 2022 asking about progress, but the EPA was never registered. Solicitor John Moylan will be sanctioned by the tribunal in September. Photo: Steve Humphreys When Mr Moylan eventually came back to her, he said he had written to Mr Barrett's daughter Bridget, who was living in England, informing her of the EPA. But Mr Moylan accepted under questioning at the tribunal that this letter was never actually sent. The solicitor had also asked Ms Owen for bank statements and nursing home invoices. Ms Owen queried the purported contact with Bridget against Mr Barrett's wishes. She also said Mr Barrett's finances were none of the solicitor's business. In another email exchange, Mr Moylan gave the impression matters were in hand, saying he was 'in contact with Dublin'. An email from Ms Owen on December 2, 2022, showed how exasperated she was. I am beyond sick of chasing you, of being ignored, and I am pretty sure being lied to as well 'Mr Moylan, I can't cover my grandfather's expenses, which I have been trying and failing to do since he went into the nursing home,' Ms Owen wrote. 'Do you have any idea how many times I have had to explain the reason the money is owing is because you, the solicitor, have failed to implement his wishes of me having enduring power of attorney? 'I am beyond sick of chasing you, of being ignored, and I am pretty sure being lied to as well.' The tribunal heard how the following May, the nursing home indicated it would be unable to continue providing care unless bills were paid. Ms Owen told LSRA counsel Elaine Finneran this left her 'heartbroken'. 'My grandfather required 24-hour care. He wasn't safe to be left on his own at all for any length of time,' she said 'I was unwell myself at that time and I physically wasn't able to provide that level of care. It was very upsetting and stressful. I left me in a situation of not knowing what was going to happen to my grandad.' Ms Owen said she believed €18,000 or €19,000 was still owed to the nursing home. 'They have been very understanding and compassionate. I can only say how grateful I am that they didn't ask my grandfather to leave at any stage,' she said. During Mr Moylan's evidence, he accepted an EPA was never executed by him in 2020. He claimed he took no further steps, as there was a requirement to alert family members, but Mr Barrett had instructed him not to contact three of his children. 'He had some beef with his family. I don't quite know what it was,' the solicitor said. Ms Finneran said this was 'the first time' Mr Moylan had provided this explanation for his inaction and it was inconsistent with anything he had told Ms Owen. She also pointed out that it had been possible for the solicitor to register an EPA even if all regulations were not complied with. Mr Moylan said he had asked Ms Owen for the bank statements and nursing home bills so he could intercede with the bank to have those bills paid, claiming he had done so in other cases previously. Tribunal chairman Dónall Curtin said Mr Moylan had admitted to the 'lead facts' put forward by the LSRA and that his explanation for not registering the EPA was 'not credible'. 'This purported explanation could have been given to the complainant at any time during the months she was waiting to have the EPA registered. It was not given,' Mr Curtin said. The chairman said the tribunal accepted Ms Owen's evidence and that misconduct had been proven beyond all reasonable doubt.
Irish Times
25-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
More than 100 complaints of excessive legal costs upheld by regulator
More than 100 complaints of excessive legal costs, most relating to family law and litigation costs, were upheld by the legal services regulator last year. A 14 per cent rise in complaints about legal practitioners to the regulator last year was largely due to a high volume of complaints by banks alleging failures by solicitors to comply with undertakings, the report of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) for 2024 also disclosed. Published on Thursday, the report said 143 of the more than 1,400 complaints finalised against legal practitioners last year were upheld, while more than 40 per cent were inadmissible. Of the complaints upheld by the regulator's complaints committee, 107 related to legal services and excessive costs, of which more than 60 per cent related to costs of litigation and family law. The remaining 36 of those upheld related to alleged misconduct. READ MORE Fifty-seven complaints of alleged misconduct were referred by the committee to the separate Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal because the authority cannot itself make findings of misconduct against legal practitioners. The LSRA has since 2020 received and investigated three types of complaints about solicitors and barristers – relating to alleged misconduct, inadequate legal services and excessive costs (overcharging). Some are mixed complaints and the vast number are against solicitors, reflecting the higher number of solicitors and their greater level of contact with clients. [ Judge criticises 'millionaire' legal costs and says losing litigants should be told lawyers' hourly rates Opens in new window ] It received 1,476 complaints last year, up 14 per cent on the 2023 figure, of which 1,410 related to solicitors and 66 to barristers. More than half, 762 (52 per cent), alleged misconduct only, 350 (24 per cent) alleged inadequate standards of legal services, mostly relating to litigation and conveyancing, and 23 (1 per cent) were from clients relating to excessive costs (overcharging). The remaining 341 complaints (23 per cent) were complaints on mixed grounds, of which 262 included an allegation of misconduct, 328 of inadequate services and 147 of excessive costs. Most complaints, 600 (41 per cent) concerned legal professionals practising in Co Dublin, 146 (10 per cent) related to Cork-based legal practitioners, 66 to Limerick and 53 to Kerry. Multiple complaints may be brought against an individual practitioner. Of the 1,474 complaints closed last year, 621 (41 per cent) were closed on inadmissibility grounds. A total of 143 complaints (10 per cent) were upheld and 182 (12 per cent) were not upheld. A further 324 complaints were resolved between the parties, including 62 with assistance of the LSRA's mediators. The LSRA made 18 successful applications to the High Court for orders to enforce its directions in complaints against legal practitioners. [ Inside the childcare courts: 'Making money from the misery of children - that's distasteful' Opens in new window ] The authority's chief executive Dr Brian Doherty said it was 'encouraging' more than one in five of all closed complaints were resolved between the parties, including with assistance of the regulator's complaints staff and trained mediators. While informal resolution may not be appropriate in every type of complaint, the evidence is that informal resolution 'can be a very effective and efficient way for both parties to work through their issues or disputes', he said. The report noted continued growth in 2024 in partnerships of solicitors seeking to operate as Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs). A total of 26 LLPs were authorised by the LSRA during the year, bringing to 509 the number authorised since November 2019 when LLPs were introduced. The number of barristers continues to increase. A total of 3,071 barristers were on the Roll of Practising Barristers by the end of 2024, up 20 on the previous year. Of these, 2,134 were members of the Law Library and 937 were practising outside of the Law Library.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wyoming lawmakers seek to eliminate SIPA, again, in effort to simplify budget process
CHEYENNE — Wyoming lawmakers will try again to eliminate the state's Strategic Investments and Projects Account (SIPA) in a continued effort to make the state's budget process more transparent for the public. Efforts have been made in past legislative sessions to eliminate Wyoming's many financial 'coffee cans.' In 2024, lawmakers successfully repealed the School Capital Construction Account and its related accounts. This year, the Legislature successfully eliminated the Budget Reserve Account (BRA) through Senate File 168 and nearly eliminated SIPA through the passage of SF 169. However, Gov. Mark Gordon line-item vetoed SF 169 and kept SIPA online. The governor maintained his long-term support of simplifying the state's budget process, but he disapproved of the Legislature's approach in SF 169. Gov. Mark Gordon Gov. Mark Gordon '(SIPA) was originally a compromise between a previous legislature and the then-serving governor,' Gordon wrote in his veto letter. He served as state treasurer in 2013, when SIPA was first created. 'The compromise recognized the value of the governor's authority to use some of the funds when making budget recommendations.' Gordon argued the original structure of the bill limited his ability to make budget recommendations. Currently, excess funds from the state's Permanent Mineral Trust Fund (PMTF) account are split evenly between SIPA and the state's main savings account (the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account, or LSRA). SF 169 originally eliminated SIPA by July 2026 and transferred all excess funds into the LSRA. Wyoming statute prohibits the governor from proposing appropriations from LSRA in excess of the 5% statutory reserve account. In other words, he can't make budget recommendations from this account. 'It is a cagey strategy to undermine a long-standing compromise between the executive and legislative branches and breach the original intent of SIPA,' Gordon wrote. One effect of Gordon's veto removed the split of funds flowing into SIPA and LSRA; now, all excess funds go directly into SIPA, effective immediately. He reasoned this action is necessary, as he expects the state will see greater pressure to fund public schools with the passage of more tax cuts and diversions, along with falling oil and natural gas prices. 'The combined effects of these factors create substantial pressure on the general fund to cover any school funding deficit and still meet the ongoing costs of government,' Gordon wrote, 'as well as provide services to Wyoming families and businesses.' Impact of veto During the Legislature's Select Committee on Capital Finance meeting on Thursday, lawmakers moved to draft a bill similar to SF 169 and, in a sense, make it 'veto-proof.' Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, who was the primary sponsor of SF 169, said Gordon's veto 'left … quite a dilemma here.' 'The net effect of this line-item veto, if we allow this to stay in statutes the way it currently is, it zeros out the reserve accounts,' Hicks said. Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs (2025) Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs Legislative budget and fiscal staff provided a comparison of the two versions of the bill and their long-term fiscal impacts, based on numbers from the January long-term forecast of the state's fiscal profile. The SIPA transfers 45% of what it retains to the School Foundation Program (SFP) account, the state's main spending account to fund public schools. If the SIPA is entirely repealed, the SFP loses that funding. Before SF 169 was signed into law, the LSRA and SFP were estimated to receive $124.1 million and $369.4 million, respectively, from SIPA over a six-year forecast period. Under the version passed by the Legislature, LSRA was estimated to receive $191.6 million in that same time period. The SFP would receive a total of $111.4 million in the first two fiscal years, and then not receive anything starting in fiscal year 2027 with the repeal of SIPA. Under Gordon's vetoes, the SFP is estimated to receive $470 million over the six-year forecast period, and the LSRA will receive no funding at all. 'But I want to point out that, starting in FY 28 the (PMTF) reserve account can't guarantee the full amount, and it falls short by about $60 million,' said LSO senior fiscal analyst Polly Scott. 'As Sen. Hicks did state … the estimate is that the reserve account is depleted somewhere in (fiscal year 2028).' Under the version adopted by the Legislature, the reserve account's life is extended beyond the six-year forecast, Scott added, because the state is relying on it less. Lawmakers respond State Treasurer Curt Meier noted that the PMTF reserve account is acting the way the LSRA should act. He suggested removing the 1.25% guarantee from the PMTF reserve account into SIPA so it can 'function (as) what it was supposed to do.' 'You're spending money you don't have and then you're trying to catch up … so you can spend it in this year's legislative session,' Meier said. 'Let the reserve account stand on itself, rather than putting more pressure on it than what it can afford to bear.' Then, the Legislature could move the unrealized capital gains into the LSRA, he said. The LSRA already provides $100 million to the school spending account once it drops below a certain threshold. Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne (2025) Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne Chairwoman Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, suggested also discussing lifting this cap from the LSRA into the SFP at the committee's next meeting in September. For now, committee members voted to draft a bill that eliminates the SIPA, with a provision to remove the 1.25% flow guarantee from the PMTF reserve account, and discuss it at the next meeting. 'The elimination of the SIPA account is important, I think, to the Legislature as a whole, in order to simplify and provide transparency to the budget process,' Nethercott said. 'Because the SIPA account has been butchered. It's been tortured ... and no longer serves its intended purpose, creating a transparency issue.'
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Generational investment fund bill fails in Wyoming House of Representatives
CHEYENNE — A bill to create an investment fund that advocates have said could offset lost mineral revenue to the state has failed in the Wyoming House of Representatives. Senate File 197, 'Wyoming generational investment account-2,' was not debated on the House floor by a Friday deadline for bills on general file, but an amendment to another bill to create the fund was debated on second reading Monday afternoon. SF 197 would have created a perpetual trust fund with a $100 million transfer from the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account (the state's 'rainy-day fund' — if available and based on a sliding scale dependent on funding in the LSRA — to the proposed Wyoming Generational Investment Account. Bill sponsor Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, said the program would have been rolled out in two phases: First, it would have created the structure needed to create the fund, and then it would have rolled out a constitutional amendment so that investment earnings would be distributed 30 years after the initial contribution. 'You have to create the fund, and then go to the people and make it an inviolate trust,' Driskill said. Driskill said that while he was 'very disappointed' the bill did not hit the House floor by Friday night, he believed the idea would come back in a future session. 'It will come back, and I really believe it will come to fruition,' Driskill said. Calculations based on historical earnings indicate the fund would be worth around $30 billion in 30 years, according to Wyoming State Treasurer Curt Meier's office. But Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, recommended the idea become an interim topic for study by the Joint Appropriations Committee. Meier said he believes there is support in the House for a constitutional amendment to create an inviolate trust, but an understanding of the bill and the program it would create 'was not there.' After the session, he said, he plans to conduct outreach to lawmakers and Wyoming residents about a generational investment account. 'We are going to go into areas where we didn't have a lot of support,' Meier said. 'We want to tell people the benefits of this idea.' Waiting a year or two to create the program doesn't mean that any long-term investment like that proposed in SF 197 cannot be realized, he continued. 'It could still pay off, but it would just be a year or two later,' Meier said. 'But if you have that steady stream of income, it opens up a whole bunch of opportunities that we don't have today.' Driskill said that SF 197 did include an effective date of three years out, so that leaders could agree on the framework of the program, but nonetheless, the measure did not make it past the House. 'We did that to have a chance to say, did we create the right framework? The right vehicle? And if we didn't, let's fix it,' he said. 'In the meantime, that would give us time to get ready to run a constitutional amendment.' Even without the creation of a new inviolate trust for the state of Wyoming this session, Driskill said he believes such a trust is crucial because when funding is short, those investment accounts are limited in use. In discussions this session about a Wyoming generational investment account, lawmakers have brought up the state's Permanent Mineral Trust Fund multiple times. According to the Wyoming Taxpayers Association, the PMTF was created in 1975 by a constitutional amendment that passed on the November 1974 ballot. The history of the fund dates back to 1968, when the balance in Wyoming's bank account had dwindled to only $80. Then-Gov. Stan Hathaway drafted a bill to institute a severance tax on minerals in the state. Legislators were reluctant to bring forward his proposal, however. The bill passed by a narrow margin, creating the first severance tax on minerals in Wyoming. Today, 30% of the state's general fund comes from interest on the PMTF, which has equated to a lower tax burden on residents. 'If we could have (spent) the Mineral Trust Fund, it probably would have been drawn down several times. I really feel strongly (a generational investment account) needs to be an inviolate trust,' Driskill said. House debates the idea anyway Monday afternoon, the House did have a chance to discuss the idea of a generational investment fund, although in a roundabout way. Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, brought a second-reading amendment to Senate File 70, 'Investment modernization-state nonpermanent funds,' to create what he said was something similar to the fund under SF 197, but what he called an 'income tax prevention account.' Harshman also sponsored House Bill 107, 'Wyoming generational investment account,' a mirror bill to SF 197. That bill was not heard in committee of the whole in the House by a Feb. 10 deadline. 'Really, this is a simple way for us to get our existing money working harder,' Harshman said about his amendment Monday. Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, said that in his eight years chairing the Appropriations Committee, he often faced discussion about impending budget shortfalls due to falling revenue from the coal, oil and gas industries. With that experience in mind, he said he would support Harshman's amendment. 'Our fundamental responsibility is to prepare for the future, for our kids and for their kids,' Nicholas said. But Bear said on the floor that the idea was vetted in the House Appropriations Committee, and that a second-reading amendment on a different bill was not the right way to resurrect the idea. SF 70, he said, restricts spending from the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund, and the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund. 'Now, what we are talking about is actually bringing a bill in for a whole different purpose, that died earlier in this particular session,' Bear said. Rep. Ann Lucas, R-Cheyenne, said she would oppose the amendment, because in addition to saving, the state must cut its spending. 'I've coached people on how to save money, and how to spend wisely,' Lucas said. 'I didn't hear anybody here say, 'Maybe we should cut spending some places.' I feel that no savings plan works without a controlled, reasonable spending plan.' Harshman's amendment failed on a 35-22 vote Monday afternoon.
