The Minister for Justice is facing a backlash from solicitors over what the Law Society described as his “deeply concerning” proposal to introduce “one flat fee” for criminal legal aid cases in the District Court.
The society has sought a meeting with the Department of Justice over the proposal, announced by Minister Jim O’Callaghan on Tuesday.
In a statement on Wednesday the society’s president, Rosemarie Loftus, said the proposed replacement of the existing payment per appearance fee structure with one flat fee is “deeply concerning”.
While welcoming the Minister’s commitment to reform the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme so it better serves the people who need it, the society “is not supportive of a fixed fee that does not take into account the indeterminate length of case proceedings and the work involved”, she said.
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The society welcomes the commitment to the restoration of criminal legal aid fees in Budget 2026, added Loftus. “This progress is an important step in increasing the availability of criminal legal aid to those who cannot afford legal representation.”
On Tuesday the Minister said he had informed Government of his proposals to reform the criminal legal aid fee structure in the District Court.
The reform “will lead to greater efficiencies in the District Court and a more sustainable Criminal Legal Aid Scheme”, he said.
His proposal is that one flat fee will be paid for legal representation from the beginning to the end of a case, removing the link between payments and the number of appearances, or legal aid certificates granted.
The Minister said the proposal fulfils the programme for Government’s commitment to reform criminal legal aid and to restore criminal legal aid fee payments.
Restoration of fees will begin on July 1st and engagement with the Law Society of Ireland and relevant stakeholders will continue in advance of that, he said.
The one flat fee proposals follows a review by the Department of Justice of more than 350,000 District Court cases during 2022 and 2023.
The proposed reform aimed to address “structural issues” identified during the review, “such as unnecessary adjournments resulting from the payment per appearance model”, said the Minister.
The proposed single fee will be payable regardless of the number of appearances, multiple certificates for cases heard together, or number of accused represented.
“This reform will lead to a more efficient system by reducing unnecessary adjournments,” O’Callaghan said. “It will also simplify the administration of criminal legal aid, resolve cases sooner, and ensure practitioners are remunerated fairly.”
His department said the volume of criminal cases in the District Court has decreased but expenditure on criminal legal aid nearly doubled from €19 million in 2015 to €37 million in 2024.
