Don’t steal the bikkies: Understanding the free legal aid system from the other side of the bars

A look at what a solicitor does for free legal aid clients for the money and why everyone deserves a robust defence.

SOLICITORS who deal with criminal legal aid defence are withdrawing their services in the Limerick courts as a protest against a new ministerial decree that they are paid a flat fee for every case, no matter how complex. This is a look at what the solicitor does for the money and why everyo ne deserves a robust defence.

A PIECE of advice for you. Don’t get charged with a criminal offence in the near future.

Never get charged with a criminal offence is better advice. But if you or someone dear to you does, you may not be able to get any lawyer, let alone the best and most experienced criminal lawyer to represent you in court.

And just in case you think ‘that’s no concern of mine’, driving over the speed limit can result in a criminal conviction. A son or daughter being caught with €10 worth of cannabis is a criminal violation – one that will have far-reaching effects on any youngster’s future.

Right now, those who specialise in criminal representation are rebelling against a proposal to be paid just one flat fee of €520 per case.

To be paid more than €500 for one job might sound like a handy number, but it includes the possibility of multiple consultations and court appearances, not to mention paperwork and paying the wages of staff who work in the legal practice.

Then there’s the rent, rates, and keeping the lights on in the firm. Staff tend to go home on sick leave if there’s no heating in the office in January. They also tend to dislike coming to work on only the promise of being paid.

To illustrate – this is what happens when you’re found slipping out the door of your local supermarket with an unpaid-for packet of biscuits in your pocket.

Gardaí are called. They check the PULSE system against your name and discover that not only are you partial to stolen bikkies but you’re wanted on charges of thieving alcohol, electrical goods, sportswear (it takes a good pair of tackies to outrun the law), driving with no insurance, and possession of an amount of weed that wouldn’t cost more than a round of drinks.

And if you’re convicted on that one, you are never going to get that visa to go to New York to see the Paddy’s Day Parade.

They arrest you and you demand – as is your right – to have a solicitor. One is called. It’s late-night shopping and it’s 10pm on a Saturday but a legal aid solicitor will still come to the cell in the Garda station.

She consults with you and asks for station bail. “No chance”, says the officer in charge.

Next day you appear in the District Court. You’ve told the solicitor you’ll plead to the biscuit theft – little choice, you practically waved at the CCTV camera – but as for the rest, ‘wasn’t there, wasn’t me’.

Now the solicitor has to ask for what is known as ‘disclosure’ – basically all the evidence the Gardaí have against you. The judge perhaps grants this but Gardaí object to bail on the basis that you’ve been avoiding coming to court to answer all the other charges. So back in the cell it might be.

It will take time, possibly weeks, to gather all the papers in evidence against you. The solicitor has to read every word, correspond with each station, and talk to each prosecuting Garda.

Meanwhile, the law says you can only be remanded in jail – remember, you’re innocent until proven guilty – for a certain number of days before you can come back to court and get your solicitor to plead to let you out. Again. And the bench will still stay ‘no’.

Now the Gardaí might discover there’s yet another historic charge of possession of enough cocaine to supply half the city. You’re denying it was yours. This is more serious than that little bit of weed. The case now goes to the Director of Public Prosecutions and a book of evidence will have to be prepared for trial.

Now, your solicitor has to go to the High Court to get bail; because otherwise, you could have an entire sentenced served in the year or 18 months this takes to get a slot in court.

And all that before any trial, any jury, any date in court. Your solicitor has visited you in jail maybe six times, appeared in various courts on your behalf four or five times, and still has to read all the evidence, form a defence, and engage a barrister – all before they go to court and cross-examine a single witness.

All for €520. Approximately the cost of getting the front room of an average semi-d professionally painted. I’d call that good value.

Now imagine a world where the only charge that really stood up against you was thieving the biscuits but you can’t get bail and you don’t have the money it takes to pay a barrister, senior counsel, and solicitor to challenge the evidence and fight your case so you lose and you’re down, doing a stretch of three years.