Defence lawyers protest over ‘pitiful’ payment rates

Defence lawyers have staged a protest over the “pitiful” payment rates District Court barristers receive at courthouses around the country.

On Monday morning, junior and senior barristers stopped work and gathered on the steps of courthouses, including the Criminal Courts of Justice, for 20 minutes, calling for improved payment for defence lawyers in the district courts.

It is the second protest in two months on the issue.

Senior barristers and the organisers of the protest wrote to the presidents of all courts as a courtesy, to explain that many lawyers would not be available in court during that time.

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In the letter to the president of each court, which was co-signed by former chairman of the Bar Council Mícheál P O’Higgins, the rates of pay in the District Court were described as “uneconomic and unsustainable”.

Barristers receive €25.20 for a remand hearing, €50.40 for a plea in mitigation at a sentence hearing and €67.50 for a full hearing of a contested trial.

The letter said that the “pitiful” rates were damaging the administration of justice.

Barrister Darren Lalor, one of the organisers of the protest, said there is a "real danger" that people will be put off doing criminal defence work because "they do not have their own independent resources to fund them through years of earning next to nothing".

“It is not in the public interest that good lawyers are effectively pushed out of criminal defence work due to low rates of pay,” he said.

Luigi Rea referred to a 2018 report by the Department of Justice which found the State's funding of legal aid per capita of the population in Ireland was €18.40, compared to €38.14 in England and Wales and €73.53 in Northern Ireland.

“Fees at all levels of the criminal legal aid system have been anchored at the 2002 rates. Very substantial cuts in rates of payment have not been reversed despite the economic recovery,” he added.

Eileen O’Leary, a senior barrister who practices in the higher courts, said everyone in society benefits from a properly funded criminal defence service.

“A properly functioning criminal legal aid system vindicates the rights of victims, and treats the accused fairly. Damaging the administration of justice is bad for victims and the whole of society,” she said.