State solicitors' strike could disrupt hundreds of court cases if not averted

Hundreds of court cases, some involving serious crime, could be disrupted or dismissed if the threatened strike by State solicitors goes ahead as expected on Monday.

Cases in four counties, Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Donegal, would be affected immediately because of the current court circuit and the backlog of cases, with other counties disrupted later.

The 32 State solicitors who operate outside Dublin are lawyers in private practice contracted to prosecute cases on behalf of the State. Dublin will not be affected by the strike because the capital is the only area in which the solicitors are employed directly as civil servants by the State.

The row centres on the method of payment to solicitors, but the president of the State Solicitors' Association, Mr Michael Murray, stressed that it was not a pay issue. State solicitors are paid by the Department of Justice partly as salary, with the remainder for staff costs and for overheads and other expenses.

The system of reimbursement currently in place was introduced in 1980, but Mr Murray, the State solicitor for Limerick, said it was no longer relevant because of the change in practice and the number of cases now. In effect solicitors "are subsidising the State's prosecution service, in my own case by between £30,000 and £40,000".

The issue has been raised in the Dail several times in the past four months by Ms Jan O'Sullivan, Labour's spokeswoman on equality and law reform.

"A murder trial in Limerick was nearly thrown out and had to be adjourned five times for the book of evidence to be prepared," she said. "Prosecutions in Limerick have been affected since last September. One forgery case did not come to court because of the workload on the State solicitor.

"The Government should not have allowed this situation become so entrenched," she added.

Mr Murray said the State solicitors had sought a review of the system, which was concluded last October 31st, but the first time they had received a response from the Department of Finance, which decides on the system of payment, was Wednesday.

The proposal was considered but "we were very disappointed with it, to put it mildly", Mr Murray said. Yesterday evening they were still awaiting a further proposal from the Department, and until the association was satisfied that a reasonable proposal would be forthcoming, the strike action would go ahead on Monday as planned.

A Government spokesman said last night, however, that management was still in negotiation with the solicitors.

New proposals had been tabled and it was hoped that the dispute could be resolved before Monday.