A SOLICITOR who was suspended from practising on Monday after failing to turn up in court to explain problems with filing his accounts was told yesterday he would have to wait until next week for a decision on lifting his suspension.
Kieran McCarthy, Maryborough Lodge, Maryborough Hill, Douglas, Co Cork, and Watergold Buildings, Douglas, applied to the High Court yesterday to have the suspension lifted.
Mr McCarthy said he had not been represented in court due to a “miscommunication” with his legal representatives.
The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, said he would not deal with the issue of lifting Mr McCarthy’s suspension until next Monday when, he said, he wanted the Law Society to explain to the court why it allowed “a proven liar” to be one of its members.
Mr McCarthy had his practising certificate suspended by Mr Justice Johnson after he failed to turn up to deal with an application by the Law Society to have him censured for failing to provide his 2003 accounts to the society on time. He had also failed to attend hearings by the society’s solicitors disciplinary tribunal.
Yesterday, in an affidavit, Mr McCarthy offered his sincerest apologies to the society and the court for his failures to turn up.
Mr McCarthy also said he had taken steps to ensure late filing of accounts would not occur again.
He said he had erroneously paid an ESB bill from his client account because of a similarity in bank account numbers with his firm’s general bank account. He said he had also mistakenly overpaid a client €32,000, which should have been withheld for capital gains tax.
Mr Justice Johnson said Mr McCarthy had written to the court that he was “too busy” to turn up on Monday and had been found by the Law Society to have lied to it.