Legal Beagles Barking Mad

In an unprecedented move yesterday the High Court issued an order against Dundalk based Digiweb, the internet and broadband service provider, in a determined effort to establish who is behind the website www.rateyoursolicitor.com, which up until it was removed from the web recently, gave solicitors' clients a forum in which to publish their opinion of their legal advisor.

Originally the site had been hosted by godaddy.com in Arizona until the fertilizer hit the fan a few weeks ago, when Newry born barrister Jayne Maguire, backed by about six solicitors, including local man Fergus Mullen, began a libel case in the High Court.

The discovery order against Digiweb seeks to establish the identity of the site owner, and it must be assumed that since the site was removed from the web by Arizona based godaddy.com, it had been hosted on a Digweb server.

This is the first order of it's kind against an Irish based ISP and seeks to establish the identity of their client with the email address 'lawyercatcher@lawyers .com, and the owner of the web domain names www. rateyoursolicitor.com, and www.crookedlawyers.com.

The case is adjourned to allow Digiweb comply with the order.

As one hack put it " The legal profession are a bit like 'Finnegans' Dog'. They can give it, but they can't take it."