In the May edition of the Law Society Gazette, Ken Murphy, director general of the Law Society of Ireland, will urge all solicitors to provide evidence to the gardai.

Having met with investigating gardai, Murphy is requesting solicitors with evidence of impropriety or possible illegality on any of these issues to inform the Law Society. Murphy said, "There have been rumours and allegations in the solicitors' profession for years about this type of improper activity by certain insurers. It is time for solicitors to get beyond anecdotes and bring forward specific facts that can be investigated by the gardai.

The society is asking practitioners to write to the society, at first instance, with specific names, dates and all other relevant facts, with a view to the society passing this information to the appropriate gardai for investigation."

Rock's team ia particularly interested in reviewing evidence that insurers have had the ability to access, source and relay information on road accidents through the garda computer system and records.

The Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes is also probing this newspaper's allegations that insurance companies had illegally obtained personal information about individuals. He confirmed in a recent statement that similar allegations had been made directly to his office in the recent past.

After contacting the Law Society for our initial article, Murphy told the Tribune, "We are getting a lot of reports that one company in particular appears to be using representatives, often ex-gardai, to approach people, even in hospital, and offer an amount that might seem very large at the time but would be a fraction of what they are entitled to." This weekend he added:

"We want to see that a thorough investigation is conducted by the gardai so we have invited solicitors to come forward with information after they have obtained their client's permission to breach confidentiality for this purpose."