A senior criminal court judge has described as “highly discourteous” the failure to give formal notice of a withdrawal of services by criminal legal aid solicitors this week.
The three day withdrawal from Wednesday will affect criminal legal aid cases, except custody cases, in the District, Circuit Courts, Central Criminal and Special Criminal Courts, and the Court of Appeal.
On Tuesday, Judge Paul McDermott, who manages the Central Criminal Court list, criticised the Law Society of Ireland over not formally notifying the courts of the proposed withdrawal.
The “unclear manner” of the proposed withdrawal was “highly discourteous” to the court and all involved in trials, including families in murder cases, to jurors and others.
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“If such action is being taken, I would expect at the very least the court would have some formal notification from a representative body of some kind. I would have thought thast would come from the Law Society of Ireland.”
He made the comments ahead of the swearing in of a Central Criminal Court jury and barristers expressing concern the trial may not proceed later this week.
The withdrawal action is due to opposition from criminal law solicitors to a new District Court criminal legal aid payments plan to come into effect on July 1st.
An intensification of the action to include custody cases could proceed next week if solicitors are unhappy with the response from the Department of Justice.
The society has not itself organised the withdrawal of services but, in a statement on Tuesday, said it is hoping for “meaningful” engagement with the department to work through “very significant” concerns.
The Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, said it “is regrettable that some practitioners are potentially taking this course of action” as the proposed reform “is aimed primarily at improving efficiencies, speeding up case resolution, and reducing unnecessary adjournments, while ensuring fair, faster and sustainable remuneration for legal practitioners”.
He met with the Bar Council and the Law Society in late May and his officials “have been engaging extensively with relevant stakeholders, including legal professionals and their representative bodies, on the proposed changes”, the minister said.
The proposals involve replacing the current payments system based on appearances with a single flat-fee for representation from the start to the end of a case.
It follows an internal department review of more than 350,000 district court cases during 2022 and 2023. That noted expenditure on criminal legal aid rose from €19 million in 2025 to €37 million in 2024.
The review referred to a number of legal aid claims, including where a law firm billed the State €14,000 over 63 legal aid certificates, reflecting the number of charges, during one court appearance on behalf of an alleged brothel-keeper.
The current fees structure incentivises solicitors to seek multiple hearings, the review said.
Last week, a meeting in Dublin of more than 150 solicitors heard strong opposition to the department’s proposals.
The meeting heard calls for action, included for the withdrawal of services for emergency and weekend court sittings.
That withdrawal was implemented by some solicitors last weekend. In one case, gardaí contacted more than 20 firms before a solicitor agreed to represent a man facing a serious criminal charge.
Criminal law solicitor Tony Collier, a partner in Ferry’s Solicitors, said there is near unanimous support from solicitors for withdrawing services.
The actions arise from a “refusal” by the Department and Minister for Justice to “engage meaningfully” with the Society, as the solicitors’ professional representative body, on criminal legal aid reforms, he said.
“We want substantial talks. The Minister is seeking to reform the criminal legal aid scheme, we welcome reform but this is not reform, it is directed only to solicitors’ payments.”
“Criminal defence solicitors provide a service on behalf of the State to many vulnerable people. That work is already underpaid and these proposals underline it is also undervalued.”
