Seven complaints of professional misconduct have been upheld against the suspended Roscommon solicitor Declan O’Callaghan.
It is understood that the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which upheld the complaints, will ask the High Court to strike O’Callaghan from the Roll of Solicitors, the ultimate professional sanction that can be taken against an errant solicitor.
The new findings against him are the latest in a lengthy career. The first professional red flag about him was raised in 1990, though he remained free to work as a solicitor until he was suspended by the High Court in July 2018.
That action followed multiple complaints from clients in the north-west where O’Callaghan, who lived in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, was a pillar of the local community. He practised at the law firm Kilrane O’Callaghan in the town, the offices of which were run by his wife, Mary Devine O’Callaghan.
Since his suspension, he has moved residence and is also understood to have spent time in Portugal.
Following the complaints about him and an investigation by the Law Society, in December 2018 the High Court ordered that the firm be wound up. In the same year, the High Court referred matters to An Garda Síochána, who have been investigating O’Callaghan since but with no known conclusion.
The latest findings against him came last week when the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal upheld seven separate complaints. All seven complaints related to his handling of the case of Brian Colleran of Ballaghaderreen, who was severely injured in a car crash in December 2009, when he was 21.
Colleran sustained serious spinal injuries in the crash which left him profoundly physically disabled. He is reliant on assistance from family members and professional carers.
An insurance claim to help pay for his lifelong care needs was settled in 2011 for €5.2 million. O’Callaghan went personally to the insurance company offices to collect the cheque and then withdrew €136,000 of the funds, which he used to pay a VAT bill with Revenue.
The VAT bill owed to Revenue was O’Callaghan’s responsibility and had nothing to do with representing Colleran.
Shortly after the settlement was reached, about €4.8 million was given to Colleran, which meant approximately €400,000 of the settlement was not handed over by O’Callaghan.
Neither Colleran nor his parents, Mary and Thomas Colleran, ever received a satisfactory explanation from O’Callaghan for the shortfall. Their repeated requests for proper financial accounts were never satisfied.
Following reporting on the case in The Irish Times, Sligo solicitor Damien Tansey offered to help the family. This culminated in their lengthy and detailed complaint to the Solicitors Tribunal.
The tribunal, whose members are appointed by the president of the High Court, is separate to but works with the Law Society, the representative and lobbying body for solicitors. The tribunal operates to the standards of the criminal justice system, which means the bar of proof is set at “beyond reasonable doubt”. This is different to the civil justice system, which operates “on the balance of probability”.
Using this standard, the tribunal found O’Callaghan guilty on all counts and last week delivered its verdict to him and to the Collerans. The next stage in the process is for the tribunal to ask the Law Society to refer its findings to the president of the High Court.
In their complaints to the tribunal, the Collerans alleged O’Callaghan had “wrongfully appropriated and misapplied” €341,285 of the €5.2 million awarded to Brian Colleran, which the family asserted had been “unlawfully deducted [and] retained” by O’Callaghan. The tribunal agreed.
Several other sums were referenced, but this was the bulk sum.
Two other complaints related to O’Callaghan failing to hand over €1,400 in travelling expenses for hospital visits, despite being asked to do so for seven years.
A further complaint alleged that O’Callaghan made “false and misleading statements” to two Dublin hospitals, namely the Mater and the National Rehabilitation Hospital. This related to O’Callaghan’s assertion to the hospitals that just €200,000 had been recovered by Colleran for medical charges and therefore, the hospitals would have to accept this sum despite billing for €360,000.
O’Callaghan did not tell the hospitals Colleran had in fact been awarded €5.2 million.
It was also complained that O’Callaghan charged the family €12,730 for what was described as “very little work”. He had failed to give a proper breakdown of how such costs were arrived at, it was stated.
Apart from representing Colleran at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Tansey also succeeded in recovering the misappropriated funds, plus interest, from the Law Society’s compensation fund.
The case against O’Callaghan was heard by the three-person tribunal (two solicitors and a lay member) on May 19th and 20th, but their judgment, in which all complaints against O’Callaghan were upheld, was handed down last Tuesday.
No date has been set yet for the president of the High Court to consider the tribunal recommendation that O’Callaghan be stripped permanently of his right to call himself a solicitor.