Law Society to call meeting on aid dispute
The Law Society has announced plans to call a meeting of criminal-law practitioners to discuss correspondence received from Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan that followed a meeting yesterday (27 July).
The talks were held to discuss the flat-fee payment structure for criminal legal aid in the District Court, introduced on 1 July, which has led many criminal-defence solicitors to withdraw their services in protest.
In a statement this evening (28 July), the minister said that the correspondence sent to the Law Society confirmed that the flat fee of €520 would remain but added that he had agreed to allow the payment to be split to allow two-thirds to be paid at the start of a case.
Children’s Court cases
He also said that the revised criminal legal-aid scheme allows for a new certificate to issue for an accused person where the charges arising are distinct and separate to any court appearance made by that person previously.
Minister O’Callaghan has asked Department of Justice officials to keep the operation of the scheme in the Children’s Court under review in the coming months, in particular any cases where more than 20 appearances were needed.
This, he said, would inform “any changes that may be required within these limited circumstances”.
The minister also said that any criminal legal-aid solicitor who had resigned from the panel but wanted to be reinstated arising from the new correspondence would be able to do so “without delay”.
Clarification sought
President of the Law Society Rosemarie Loftus said that the correspondence from the minister had been circulated to criminal-law solicitors.
“The chair of the Criminal Law Committee will be calling a meeting of practitioners to discuss the contents,” she added.
The President added that the Law Society was seeking clarification from the Department of Justice on “a number of matters” before the meeting.