Lawyers' views on RUC sought

Barristers and solicitors will be surveyed on their experience

The Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the relationship between lawyers and the RUC.

More than 2,000 solicitors and barristers in the province are being sent a questionnaire giving them the opportunity to say whether they have experienced any unprofessional behaviour from police officers.

The six-month project is being carried out by the ombudsman's office with the support of the Law Society and the Bar Council.

The ombudsman Nuala O'Loan said that while she had received some representations from individual solicitors, she was aware that there was a much wider public discussion on the issue.

Nuala O'Loan: "Survey of all lawyers has never been done"

She said: "I feel we owe it to the legal profession and the police to inform public discussion on this issue.

"More importantly, if there is an ongoing problem between these two professions, we want to find a way to resolve it.

Mrs O'Loan added: "It is important that we in the police ombudsman's office try to get at the facts, rather that rely on general public comment.

"No-one before has actually asked each solicitor and barrister whether or not he or she has experienced difficulties.

"My research and policy directorate will work on this project to try to establish the nature and extent of the problem."

Findings published this year

The ombudsman added that the survey would be carried out in strict confidence and that the overall findings would be published later this year.

Mrs O'Loan's office came into being last November to investigate complaints about the police in Northern Ireland.

One of the most high profile cases of a solicitor complaining of police harassment in Northern Ireland was that of Rosemary Nelson.

The Lurgan solicitor was killed by loyalist paramilitaries when a bomb exploded under her car outside her County Armagh home in March 1999.

She had told the Belfast-based Irish News newspaper about her difficulties in dealing with the RUC in the weeks before she was murdered.