Legal aid certificates fall 93% as Law Society calls for mediator in dispute

Solicitors across the country have been withdrawing their services since the courts returned after the August break. File picture

The president of the Law Society has written to the justice minister to request the appointment of a mediator in the legal aid dispute, as new figures show the number of legal aid certificates issued in July fell by 93% compared with the same month last year.

Rosemarie Loftus highlighted the fall in legal aid certificates issued since the new flat fee was introduced on July 1. 

Court Service figures cited by Ms Loftus show that six courts across the country – including Mallow in Cork and Nenagh in Tipperary – had no legal aid certificates issued in July.

That compared with 118 issued in Mallow District Court and 120 in Nenagh District Court in July 2025.

The number of certificates issued in Cork was down from 677 to 18 – a fall of 97.3%. In Sligo, just one certificate was issued in July, down from 107 in July 2025.

Since July 1, a flat fee of €520 has been introduced per legal aid case, regardless of the number of District Court appearances in a case. Under the previous model, solicitors received approximately €240 for a first appearance and €60 for each subsequent appearance.

Solicitors across the country have been withdrawing their services since the courts returned after the August break in opposition to the flat fee introduced by justice minister Jim O’Callaghan for criminal legal aid cases.

The Department of Justice said last week that more than 700 new criminal legal aid certificates, equivalent to approximately €400,000 in criminal legal aid fees, have been issued since July 1.

Law Society calls for mediator

In her letter to Mr O’Callaghan, Ms Loftus said: “While your letter outlines a number of amendments that have been made since the revised Scheme was proposed, I am particularly disappointed that it does not in any way alter the two fundamental issues that remain at the heart of the current dispute. Recent engagement has helped to narrow the issues to two core outstanding matters, but the current impasse is having a profound impact on the administration of justice. 

"Courts Service figures for July 2026 are stark: the number of legal aid certificates granted has collapsed compared to July 2025 - down 93% from 10,277 to just 702 in July 2026. We have requested more details from the Court Service, but a fall of this scale, seen in courts across the country, is deeply worrying in itself.” 

She added: “The Dublin courts listed in the Courts Service data accounted for thousands of certificates in July 2025, including 3,344 at the Criminal Courts of Justice, compared with 60 in July 2026 (a 98% fall). At Cloverhill, certificates fell from 346 to 25 (a 93% fall), while at the Children's Court they fell from 128 to nine (a 93% fall).” 

She said she believes there is “merit in considering the appointment of an independent mediator to assist the parties in finding a resolution”.

She continued: “An experienced independent mediator could help bridge the gap between your policy objectives and the practical realities experienced by practitioners on the ground. We would be happy to discuss an appropriate process to appoint such a mediator. Given the importance of restoring stability to the criminal justice system, I think that the time has come to consider such an approach.” 

Two outstanding issues

She said there are two outstanding issues to be tackled:

• the treatment of separate and distinct criminal cases as a single matter where they happen to come before the court on the same day;
• the absence of a practical mechanism to deal with exceptional cases that often concern children and those with mental health issues, which can involve unusually high numbers of court appearances over an extended period.

She added: “It seems that a clearer and mutual understanding of the definition of a case and of intended practical procedures may assist considerably in resolving this issue, which goes to the practical reality of how criminal cases are conducted in courts throughout the State and how solicitors are required to represent their clients in those proceedings.”