TWO SOLICITORS who sued the HSE, claiming they were owed some €4.7 million by two former health boards in legal fees, have settled their High Court action for an undisclosed amount.
In earlier and separate proceedings, the Law Society had lost its application for strike-off orders against Henry Colley and Colm Carroll, formerly practising as Roger Greene Sons, Solicitors, Bridge Street, Dublin.
The strike-off orders had been sought after both men admitted 50 charges of gross misconduct and operating secret accounts in which multimillion-euro sums were lodged in a deliberate bid to evade tax.
The firm of Roger Greene Sons had acted for the then East Coast Area Health Board and the Northern Area Health Board for many years until December 2004 when both health boards instructed the firm to pass all files in their possession to another legal firm with immediate effect.
Mr Colley, who is still a solicitor, and Mr Carroll, who has retired, later took proceedings against the HSE, as statutory successor to the health boards, claiming some €4.7 million was owed in fees and interest. The bulk of the amounts claimed related to 2000-2002.
In their claim, the solicitors said, at the request of the Northern Area Health Board, they agreed a system of fixed monthly payments would apply from March 2000, with an additional lump-sum balance payment to be assessed later, until a proposed new scheme of remuneration was agreed. That system was kept in place until April 2002, they said.
The HSE had denied the sums claimed were due and owing.
