Barristers stepped up their campaign over the continuing failure to reverse recession-era cuts to criminal legal aid fees with protests on Friday outside the Criminal Courts of Justice and other courthouses.
Some barristers withdrew their legal services on Friday as part of a day of action. That withdrawal, according to barrister Darren Lalor, one of the organisers of the protest, involved not taking phone calls related to legal matters and not attending court.
The cuts mean particularly “pitiful” fees for barristers practising in the District Court who are paid €25.20 for a remand hearing, €50.40 for a plea in mitigation at a sentence hearing and €67 for a full trial hearing, Mr Lalor said.
Friday’s day of action, in which junior and senior counsel participated, was organised by Mr Lalor and others before this week’s announcement by the council of the Bar of Ireland that it is recommending criminal barristers withdraw their legal services nationwide on October 3rd next.
The council’s chairperson, senior counsel Sara Phelan, said it was “left with no choice” as a result of the government’s failure to restore criminal legal aid fees, which remain below 2002 levels in nominal terms, following cuts applied during the financial emergency.
The council is recommending its members withdraw services on October 3rd in pursuit of a “meaningful, independent and time-limited mechanism to determine fees payable to barristers by the DPP and under the criminal justice (legal aid) scheme,” Ms Phelan said.
The council, she said, has been attempting to engage with government on the issue of fee restoration for some seven years. “Having exhausted every avenue available to us, we have now lost confidence in government’s commitment to the preservation of the highest standards in the administration of justice and in the existing mechanism for determining the fees payable to barristers practising criminal law.”
The council remains available “to actively engage” with the government on these issues, she added.
Ms Phelan and other council members attended the protest at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Friday. While it had not organised the protest, the council “recognises the frustration of the members who are protesting,” Ms Phelan said.
Mr Lalor described the council’s decision to recommend a withdrawal of services on October 3rd as “very positive” but said some barristers believe the October date is “a bit far away”.
“The criminal justice system at District Court level is on its knees,” he said.
Support
The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, has voiced her support for the reversal of the fee cuts, imposed as part of cuts to public service pay as a result of the financial crisis over a decade ago, and has said she would raise the issue with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, he noted.
Even if pay is restored, there must be a reorganisation of the system at District Court level under which criminal legal aid fees are paid to solicitors, who then pay barristers. Barristers providing criminal legal aid services in the District Courts should be paid directly by the State, as happens in all other courts, he said.
Senior counsel Giollaíosa O Lideadha, who practises in the higher courts and was among the protesters, said the pay levels of public servants was restored many years ago but lawyers remain “the easy target to single out”.
“The Government’s refusal to provide for fair payments for lawyers in the District Court and in the higher courts amounts to an indirect attack on the rights of victims, on human rights, and on the community’s right to a fair and efficient criminal justice system,” he said.
“It seems that in order to avoid further serious damage to the criminal justice system, it may be necessary to bring that system to a halt in an escalating series of days of action,” he said.
