Help is at Hand In times of difficulty, with all of us beset with the pressures of a pandemic and its effect on our ability to practise, it is good to know that your colleagues are always willing to listen and help where we can. Niall Cawley highlights the great service that is the Solicitors Helpline
Background In 1984 the DSBA established what was then called the Solicitors Helpline with the simple but important aim of assisting colleagues experiencing difficulties. The helpline was subsequently renamed Consult a Colleague in the hope that the new name would more accurately reflect the services being offered.
Panel of Volunteers Consult a Colleague is independently run for the benefit of all solicitors in Ireland with administrative support from the DSBA. It is operated by a panel of volunteers who give freely of their time on a two week rotation so that at any time of the year, on every day of the year there are at least two solicitors on standby. The panel is organised in such a way that the contact details for all of the volunteers are available on the Consult a Colleague website at www.consultacolleague.ie so that, in the event that the two volunteers on call on that particular fortnight are colleagues whom a caller might not wish to speak with for any particular reason, he or she can still easily access the full list of volunteers and call any one of them. One of the most important points to take from this is that this is an entirely confidential support service. The colleagues who offer their assistance do so on a voluntary basis and will not and cannot accept instructions arising out of what passes between them and the caller.
Solicitors Only This facility is operated for the benefit of Solicitors only. 6 the Parchment
Confidentiality All calls are made on a no names basis. Of course, any caller can if he or she wishes identify themselves to the volunteer that they have called. While the volunteer’s identity is clearly shown the intent here is to shield the caller. All callers can be assured that volunteers do not keep records, even for members of the Consult a Colleague Committee or for other volunteers, of the information that has been furnished to them. This is a strictly confidential service.
Advice Consult a Colleague offers advice unlike some other counselling services.
Professional Representative Again to re-iterate, the volunteers of Consult a Colleague are not professional representatives in the sense that they will not take over the conduct of any matter on a professional level that you might ask them to take over as a result of your dealing with them as volunteers. This is to protect the integrity of the Consult a Colleague system and to copper fasten the fact that this is a voluntary service given by volunteers who are not out to make any sort of financial reward. If professional representation is required the Consult a Colleague website has the name of a couple of solicitors’ firms who work in this area professionally and for which of course they are paid but those firms are independent of Consult a Colleague.
