At first glance, it was an ordinary day in Dublin District Court.
Judge Michele Finan’s long list of cases ranged from charges over a man removing a clamp on a car with an angle grinder and the theft of €4 in food items from supermarket chain Lidl to more serious offences involving charges of assault and rape.
But, as the list got under way on Thursday, there was no getting away from the impact of the withdrawal of services by criminal defence solicitors. They were conspicuous by their absence.
The dispute over legal aid shows no signs of abating. Solicitors strongly oppose a new criminal legal aid payment model for the District Courts from the Department of Justice that kicked in on July 1st. It introduced a flat fee of €520 per case, irrespective of the number of court appearances, replacing the previous model of €239.38 for a first appearance and €59.86 for each subsequent appearance.
READ MORE
At the outset of her list, Finan primed those in court number one at the Criminal Courts of Justice near the Phoenix Park in Dublin on the obstacles facing them over the dispute.
“There may not be lawyers available to represent you,” she said.
She set out the options facing them: that included representing themselves before the court or having their cases put back to a later date, she said.
The difficulty in accessing solicitors was confirmed by a garda who said gardaí were unable to find a solicitor for a man facing charges over alleged possession of cigarettes valued at up to €20,000
Several people facing charges in court opted to have their cases put back in the hope of getting a solicitor later, though others chose to proceed without a solicitor.
Irrespective of the dispute, many cases were adjourned because the disclosure of evidence, such as CCTV footage, had yet to be made, or to await directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions, or the service of a book of evidence detailing the case against them.
Another frequently cited reason for adjournment in the court included defendants failing to turn up, leading to bench warrants being issued.
Defence solicitors generally attended for clients in custody assigned to them before July 1st. For more recent custody cases, those accused were unable to access a solicitor from the legal aid panel.
The difficulty in accessing solicitors was confirmed by a garda who told the judge that, despite multiple efforts, gardaí were unable to find a solicitor for a man facing charges over the alleged possession of cigarettes valued at up to €20,000.
The absence of legal aid solicitors came into particularly sharp focus when a man charged with assault of another man, who, the court was told, had been left with serious head injuries, told the judge he had tried to contact his solicitor but he believed there was “a strike”.
He was “very upset” he had no access to a solicitor during the process and during his interviews with gardaí, he said.
Finan, noting that the man is “currently unwaged”, said he was entitled to legal aid “but, unfortunately, due to an industrial dispute, you can see there are no lawyers in court to represent you”.
The man said he wanted to proceed with an application for bail. After hearing him, and strong Garda objections, the judge refused bail and remanded him in custody.
There was light relief when one man said he did not need a solicitor; he wanted to plead guilty to having an angle grinder with intent to use in the course of theft, involving being part of a group of workers who attempted to remove a clamp from a car.
“I’ve been caught,” he said, adding: “The boss was meant to have the parking sorted.”
Telling him he was “a very straightforward person”, Finan said she would apply the Probation Act if he donated €200 to charity. The man readily agreed, avoiding a criminal conviction.
The withdrawal of services has intensified over the past three weeks and has led to the adjournment of thousands of criminal cases across all court divisions.
At a sitting of the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, across the hall from Finan’s court, only two out of 10 cases listed for sentencing proceeded.
Sources within the Courts Service said the impact of the dispute was most evident in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, but it is also affecting court business in other districts around the country.
Senior legal sources, including judges, said the situation was worsening and were concerned that – apart from the immediate impacts on accused persons, victims and witnesses – it would result in additional backlogs in many courts.
There is also concern about the prospect of future challenges to convictions based on defendants failing to have access to a solicitor.
The Law Society, the representative body for solicitors, has described the new payment model as “unworkable”, and is seeking “meaningful” engagement with the department about criminal legal aid reform.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has said the old payment model was vulnerable to abuse and encouraged unnecessary adjournments.
He argues that the new model is aimed at improving efficiency and reducing adjournments, and has insisted he is “not for turning” on the changes.
The new model was devised following an internal review by the department that noted spending on criminal legal aid almost doubled from €19 million in 2015 to €37 million in 2024, despite a fall in the volume of cases.
The review has been criticised by the Law Society as “flawed” and based on out-of-date data.
An analysis of criminal legal aid payments in 2025 shows 764 solicitors on the panel of 885 received payments that year.
Of those, 518 – representing almost 68 per cent – of solicitors on the panel received payments under €53,300, while 246 – or 32.2 per cent – were paid sums above that figure.
‘Seriously, I could write a book about State failings in the court system’
— District Court Judge Desmond Zaidan
Just over half of the panel, 52 per cent, were paid under €20,000, while 6.3 per cent were paid above €250,000.
Defence solicitors say, out of those earnings, solicitors must pay fees to barristers, staff costs, insurance costs ranging between €8,000 and €15,000 annually, and other costs associated with running their business.
Amid warnings of an “exodus” from the criminal legal aid panel of solicitors if the new payment model was implemented, the Courts Service said this week that 76 solicitors had withdrawn by Thursday last.
Defence solicitors have said that, of the 885 names on the panel, 34 are no longer practising. Up to Tuesday last, 23 legal aid certificates were granted under the new payment model.
Defence solicitors are especially angry at the suggestion they are stringing out cases, insisting most adjournments are the fault of the State.
Their claim received support this week from District Court Judge Desmond Zaidan who sits in Naas, Co Kildare. He said 75 per cent of adjournments in his court were down to “State failures” and it was “morally wrong” to blame defence solicitors for them.
“Seriously, I could write a book about State failings in the court system,” he said on Wednesday.
Another District Court judge, Andrew Cody, took a different stance when he criticised the Law Society and solicitors over a refusal by several solicitors to provide representation to a murder accused.
Their refusal, said Cody, could be argued as undermining the fundamental right of the accused to legal advice. This was “disgraceful”, and the society should review its position, he said.
In response, the society said it intended to write to Cody to provide him with further information on its role and the role of individual solicitors.
In another development this week, the High Court indicated it is “80 per cent likely” to hear, on July 30th and 31st, a challenge by solicitor John Quinn to the payments system in which he wants an order quashing the statutory instrument underpinning the new scheme.
With another week of disruptions to criminal courts and the cases coming before them, there appears no sign of an end to the impasse.
