As regular sittings resumed last week following the August holiday, Sligo District Court was disrupted for the eighth time by a solicitors’ strike over changes to the legal aid payment scheme. The dispute has been going on since June 17.
On July 1, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan implemented a flat fee of €520 for criminal legal aid in the district court, rather than per-appearance fees.
Previously, solicitors were given €240 for the first appearance and €60 on subsequent appearances.
The €520 fee is equivalent to five appearances under the old system, plus a 8pc increase in fees which was given to all criminal lawyers this year.
On July 28, Minister of Justice Jim O’Callaghan said that the flat fee model would remain but that the payment would be split to ensure that solicitors are paid two-thirds of the fee at the beginning of a case, with the remaining one third at the end of the case or 12 months later.
On August 6, the President of the Law Society of Ireland, Ms Rosemarie Loftus wrote to the Minister of Justice on two issues that she believed were critical.
The first issue dealt with separate cases with distinct facts which happened to be before court on the same day. The Law Society recommended that two legal aid certificates be granted if a person was before court on a burglary charge and an assault charge that happened in different places and different dates.
The second issue concerned cases with extended duration such as cases that involved children, people with mental health issues and people remanded in custody by judges.
Ms Loftus pointed out that under the new scheme a solicitor who represents someone in court for a non-complex matter will be paid the same as someone who represents a troubled child in a complex case involving 20 plus court appearances.
The Law Society recommended that as an interim measure for such cases, that another legal aid certificate would be granted if a case exceeds ten court appearances.
On Thursday, 63 defendants were before Sligo District Court with 163 offences between them. The majority of cases were adjourned to dates in November, December, January and even has far as February.
Only three cases were finalised. Two of the cases involved defendants in custody, one had representation whilst the other decided to represent himself. The other matter finalised was confirmation that a man made a charitable donation and had a charge struck out.
Article funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.