Courts risk grinding to a halt as solicitors walk away

WITH the criminal courts of law returning to full operation next week after the annual August recess, a cloud hangs over future operations...

WITH the criminal courts of law returning to full operation next week after the annual August recess, a cloud hangs over future operations as solicitors say they will continue to withdraw representation for people accused of criminal offences.

The withdrawal is in protest against a new €520 ‘flat-fee-fits-all’ system of payment which Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has introduced against a background of dire warnings that it is unworkable.

In Cork, every legal aid solicitor withdrew their services and walked out of court en-mass in July.

Around the country, hundreds of free legal aid lawyers have resigned from the panel of representatives.

None have resigned in Limerick, but many have imposed their own restrictions. Across the country, more than nine in 10 legal aid solicitors are refusing to represent some or all persons accused of a crime.

Julieanne Kiely has been a solicitor for more than 20 years and she and her colleagues in the firm opted on a partial down-tools but to continue to represent accused juveniles and people arrested and taken into custody.

With no positive news from the Minister, she says, the situation will continue and most likely get worse.

“The proposal that we should represent a client for any number of court appearances on any number of charges and conduct all the consultations and paper work associated with that for a flat fee is unworkable,” she told the Limerick Post of the new legal aid system.

“It’s simple enough if a client wants to plead guilty in the District Court. But it’s not at all unusual to have 10 or more different charges.

“The solicitor has to deal with 10 different Gardaí, often on charges from different parts of the country because he’s had warrants out for him or he’s wanted in connection with crimes all over the place.

“That’s 10 sets of paperwork, most like multiple court appearances and consultations – a flat fee won’t cover that.”

One person whom Ms Kiely recently represented was charged with 46 suspected cases of theft “from all over the country”.

“There were 16 different court appearances and you have to be there to represent your client each time. There’s a mountain of work and time in cases like that and we’re expected to charge a flat fee for the whole lot?”

“We have even offered the alternative of keeping the flat fee but if there are multiple charges, allow a fee for each one with cap on the number,” Ms Kiely said.

Currently, most solicitors in Limerick have discontinued all work in the Circuit Court, where serious charges are handled, and the Central Criminal Court, where the most serious allegations are tried, had to adjourn every case before the summer recess.

Ms Kiely says it isn’t just a question of individual solicitors’ fees, “it’s about the future of the system”.

“It’s hard enough already to encourage young qualifying people to go into criminal legal aid, particularly in rural areas, and this measure is going to make that even harder.”

Ms Kiely says that it’s a real possibility that “a time will come when someone accused of a crime who doesn’t have the money to pay a solicitor will not be able to get anyone to represent them in court”.

Over a decade ago, a similar rule was put in place for family court representation and that, the Limerick solicitor says, has resulted in huge numbers of the legal profession withdrawing from working in the complex family law system. The result is huge difficulty for people with little means to get someone to speak for them in court.

“So we’ve seen this before. We know this system is unworkable,” she says.

Ms Kiely describes the Minister’s proposal as “a cost cutting report without any analysis”.

Andrew d’Arcy, President of the Limerick Bar Association, echoes that grim prediction and says there “is the likelihood of a miscarriage of justice”, with an innocent person being convicted and jailed for something they didn’t do, simply because they couldn’t afford experienced legal representation.

The row comes against a background of the recession in 2008, when all legal practitioners, along with Gardaí and civil servants, took a hit in earnings to enable the country to stay afloat.

“Legal aid fees were reduced back then by 40 per cent. We took that on the chin. After the barristers protested last year, 10 per cent was restored. So we’re still 30 per cent down on our fees from 2008.”

Despite promises from former Minister for Justice Helen McEntee that the fees would be restored in January last, that hasn’t happened and instead the new flat proposals have been drawn up.

“To have a proper, working democracy, you need a robust, fair justice system, which we currently have but this proposal will seriously undermine that system”.

The Minister has defended the proposals, saying that the system must be streamlined to cut down on delays and provide value for taxpayers money.

But for any kind of serious case, a solicitor will have to go back to court with a client three of four times while a book of evidence is prepared by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“After the fifth adjournment, you’re working for nothing,” Mr d’Arcy said.

There are 200 practicing solicitors in the Limerick area, but the Limerick Bar Association president points out that criminal law is a very complex area, with far reaching consequences for those accused of a crime, including public shaming, a conviction that will follow then everywhere and even losing their freedom.

“Only a few solicitors are able to do it,” Mr d’Arcy says. “This is being dressed up as reform but it will seriously undermine the justice system.”

“We have a justice system which is respected in every democratic country. A miscarriage of justice would undermine Ireland’s reputation and respect on an international stage”.