Legal aid fee dispute at a standstill, Ireland’s Law Society says

A dispute over legal aid fees in Ireland has entered another month with no agreement, and the Law Society says victims have been left in limbo.

More than 100 Dublin-based solicitors agreed last week to continue withdrawing services. Solicitors in Cork are expected to take the same position. The action began after the government introduced a flat-fee payment system in July, including a €520 payment per client in the district court.

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Effectively come to a standstill

Under the previous system, solicitors received payment for each court appearance by a single person. The first appearance brought just over €239, followed by almost €60 for each later hearing. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said that arrangement encouraged repeated adjournments and meant legally aided cases took longer to finish than other cases.

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Victims and witnesses and family members of victims are having to put up with this delay. It is unknown. Will this be fixed in a week, a month or six months?

Ian McNamara, a criminal solicitor in County Tipperary and a Law Society spokesperson, said the society’s proposal to the minister at the end of last month was rejected without further changes. He said solicitors were not prepared to return to work or resume accepting cases under the current arrangements.

McNamara said higher courts, especially the circuit court, faced the greatest impact because of the backlog. He estimated that clearing it could take 12 months. The Law Society has narrowed its demands to two points: separate legal aid certificates for separate cases heard at the same time, and the ability to seek a new certificate after 10 attendances in exceptionally long cases. McNamara acknowledged that some unusual claims involving 50 or 100 certificates at one attendance could not be defended, but said longer cases needed compensation for the work performed.

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Nobody would stand over that.