Solicitors walk out of courts and raise 'serious concerns' over Jim O'Callaghan
Criminal defence solicitors stage a protest over legal aid reforms on the first day of the new legal term outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday. Picture: Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA
Solicitors have “serious concerns” about Jim O’Callaghan’s position as justice minister, according to a defence solicitor protesting on Monday as the legal year opened.
Around 200 criminal defence solicitors and barristers walked out of the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on Monday to protest over a lack of action from Mr O’Callaghan to settle pay disputes.
His lack of dialogue is a “cynical ploy”, according to Holly Laher, a criminal defence solicitor for Ferrys Solicitors, who says confidence in the minister has eroded.
“I think it’s kind of a cynical ploy. I think that he’s hoping that this actually unfolds and that he doesn’t want to budge on the system,” she said.
“But I don’t think he’s done his homework in relation to it. It won’t be sustainable for the profession to continue. It has a huge impact. It’ll cause a massive backlog, worse than it had been during covid. The minister needs to negotiate.
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“I think that I have a severe lack of confidence in circumstances where he’s made claims that have no baseline. He has often asserted that delays were caused by solicitors, which he had no data to actually back up. Many inefficiencies are state-led, and I would have serious concerns about the tenability of his position in this circumstance.”
The dispute over criminal legal aid arose when Mr O’Callaghan replaced a per-appearance fee with a flat rate in July, prompting hundreds of solicitors to withdraw their services.
Striking solicitors say they are open to reforms but have rejected the flat fee model, which the minister said equates to the average of fee appearances under the old system.
Solicitors now receive a flat rate of €520 per case, regardless of the number of district court appearances.
Under the previous model, solicitors received approximately €240 for a first appearance and €60 for each subsequent appearance.
The Law Society said it is happy to compromise. It is calling for additional payment for cases of extended duration and appearances, as well as multiple legal aid certificates for matters with multiple charges, with a cap of five legal aid certs.
Mr O’Callaghan is not interested in compromise, striking solicitors say. They are pleading with him to come to the table, according to Amanda Connolly, a criminal defence solicitor and vice-chairwoman of the Criminal Law Committee for the Law Society.
“It’s very disappointing. I know the minister has said that he’s not engaging prior to the judicial review judgment being delivered on October 13, but I don’t think that’s a realistic goal,” she said.
“There’s nothing to stop him engaging with us prior to that, sitting down and talking. No dispute is ever resolved without people sitting down and meaningfully engaging with each other. That’s all we’re asking for.
“It’s going to have a huge impact, especially on people who are waiting… victims of crime, their families, injured parties, who have been waiting for this day for a long time, only to turn up to court and find that their cases are not getting on. It’s regrettable but it is a solvable problem.
“He is the minister for justice. We have always said we would be happy to engage and make a lot of meaningful suggestions as to how it could be sped up, and more efficient for everyone, including victims and court users. But he hasn’t engaged us at all.”
More than 100 criminal defence solicitors who practise in Dublin have voted unanimously to extend their withdrawal of services into October as the impasse remains unresolved.
Luke O’Higgins, a criminal barrister protesting alongside the solicitors on Monday, said the dispute is affecting everyone who works in the courts system. Junior barristers, he said, will have to leave if the issue is not addressed.
“The only possible consequence I see is that solicitors are going to have to do work and not be paid for it. All they’re asking for is to be paid for the work they do,” he said.
“The courts are quite a delicate ecosystem. A barrister cannot work without the instructions of a solicitor. So every single person within this building is being affected.
“Junior barristers will not be able to earn a living. We will see people leaving en masse.”
Mr O'Callaghan has said the criminal courts are running “effectively” despite the dispute.
However, Mr O’Higgins said: “There has been a suggestion of the courts operating as normal. Having actually seen that personally, I have to flatly reject that because that’s not what was happening.
“The lists are being adjourned en masse today, all dealing with extremely serious matters. They return today for an extremely busy term, and nearly all of the cases are going to be adjourned.
“Victims are going to be left waiting. Victims who may have been left waiting before are going to be left waiting again and everything is just going to build up.
“There is already a build-up. We just dealt with the covid backlog and we’re entering into another backlog again.”
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