The Dublin criminal courts face possible shutdown over a total of five days this week and next as the bitter dispute over a new criminal legal aid payments model for the District Courts continues to escalate.
Solicitor sources said they expect the action in Dublin will be mirrored by criminal defence solicitors in other courts around the country.
A statement issued after about 70 Dublin-based criminal legal aid solicitors decided on Tuesday to extend their withdrawal of services described “intransigence” by the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, as “the major obstacle in the way of progress and resolution”.
At a meeting earlier in the Courts of Criminal Justice in Dublin, the solicitors group resolved to extend a shutdown of cases in the CCJ planned for Wednesday and Thursday to a further three days next week.
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That means more disruption of criminal court lists, already incurring additional backlogs due to thousands of adjournments.
Tony Collier, a partner in Ferrys Solicitors and a spokesman for the solicitors’ group, said their decision to implement a shutdown of cases on Wednesday and Thursday this week in the CCJ was taken with “great regret”.
“Every solicitor would much prefer to be in court representing their clients but that is simply not possible under the new legal aid scheme.”
Further action is planned for the coming week, extending over three days, he said.
The solicitors, and their representative body, the Law Society, “are available at any time to meet and discuss these matters and to work towards agreement”, he said.
Solicitors began withdrawing services last month over strong opposition to the new model proposed by the Department of Justice and have intensified their action since the new system became operational on July 1st.
The new model provides for one 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.
The Minister has said the old payment model was vulnerable to abuse and encouraged unnecessary adjournments. The new model was devised following an internal review by his 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 Law Society has described the review as flawed and the new payment model as “unworkable” and has urged “meaningful” engagement about pay and criminal legal aid reform.
The department said it began engagement last year with the Society and Bar council about criminal legal aid issues in the District Court, received submissions and held further meetings this year.
After these discussions, it said some concessions were made in the final regulation, including increasing to €520 the flat fee for legal aid District Court cases, based on an average five appearances per case.
There is mounting concern in legal and judicial circles about the impact of the worsening dispute, including on court lists, accused people, complainants and witnesses.
Judges have reacted in different ways with some continuing to issue legal aid certificates for defendants in the absence of specific requests from a solicitor.
At least two judges have warned solicitors the Legal Services Regulation Act restricts them from ceasing to act for a client in custody previously assigned to them unless they have court permission to do so.
Solicitors, and a judge, have disputed claims from the department concerning the number of certificates issued under the new scheme.
The department said last weekend 178 certificates issued in the first two weeks of the new scheme, in courts including Naas and Wicklow.
Solicitors disputed the accuracy of that number and also described it as insignificant in a context where more than 98,000 certificates issued last year.
Judge Desmond Zaidan, who presides at Naas court, has said no legal aid certificates had been sought or granted there since the withdrawal of services began.
