Solicitors working in Offaly 'on strike' in row over legal aid fees

Numerous cases adjourned at Tullamore District Court after legal representatives told judge they weren't providing services

Published 17th Jun 2026, 15:20 BST Solicitors 'strike' at Tullamore District Court | Tribune Pictures Numerous cases adjourned at Tullamore District Court after legal representatives told judge they weren't providing services Sign up to our Offaly Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Offaly Live within your account.

NUMEROUS cases at Tullamore District Court were adjourned this morning as a result of what Judge Andrew Cody said was a “strike” by solicitors.

Three solicitors who handle the vast majority of the local cases where legal aid is granted told Judge Cody they would not be providing legal services on Wednesday and for the rest of the week.

The solicitors, Patrick Martin, Aisling Maloney and Brian Duffy said they were taking the action individually but their withdrawal was part of a wider move by lawyers nationally following talks involving the Law Society.

The Department of Justice is introducing a flat-fee system of payment for work involving accused people who are granted legal aid.

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Legal aid is granted by a sitting judge once the court is satisfied the applicant cannot afford to employ a solicitor themselves.

Under the current system, a solicitor is paid €239 for the first appearance on behalf of the accused in court and about €50 for further appearances under a sliding scale arrangement.

The new regime effectively brings in a once-off payment of €455 and the solicitors at Tullamore District Court said it is “unworkable”.

This morning, after representing a number of people currently in custody and another who is in the Central Mental Hospital, Ms Maloney told Judge Cody she would not be providing services for a man where the prosecution were re-entering his case.

She said she would not be providing the services because of “cutbacks” and said the withdrawal of services was “in respect of the legal aid system” but with exceptions, such as the cases she had been involved in earlier.

Asked to clarify her position by Judge Cody, Ms Maloney explained that she had been “advised” to take the approach she had taken.

“What am I meant to do?” asked the judge. Ms Maloney suggested an adjournment and the judge put the matter back for a week to June 24.

Mr Martin and Mr Duffy gave similar explanations when clients of theirs were called, with Mr Duffy apologising to the judge, court staff and gardai for any disruption caused.

The three solicitors then left the courtroom and many people whose cases were listed told the judge in turn who they were being represented by and he granted adjournments, remarking that their legal representatives were “on strike”.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Mr Martin said solicitors were dissatisfied with how they had been treated by the Department of Justice when the changes were proposed.

He was disappointed with the engagement by the department with the Law Society and with the emergency legislation which was being used to introduce the changes.

Mr Martin and his colleagues all spoke of how the workload on solicitors had increased in recent years.

In addition, more people were being granted legal aid in circumstances of inflation and cost of living increases.

“We're working in extremely difficult and unprecedented times with so many more courts that we have to attend to and so many more cases. The cases are far more complex, the issues that people are dealing with, including mental health, drugs, alcohol, deaths on the road, are far more serious than they ever were and this is where the work and the burden on us has increased,” he said.

The original legislation on legal aid dated from 1962 and the “playing field” was no longer the same and the jurisdiction of the District Court had entirely changed.

He said that under the new system a solicitor would not get paid at all if a client in receipt of legal aid changed to a different solicitor or did not turn up in court and a warrant was issued.

He said the initial €239 payment included a consultation and meeting with clients in advance of the court appearance and there was then a sliding scale of payments “depending on the number of clients you have”.

Mr Martin said the current payment system was discouraging new entrants and the changes ran the risk of leaving people unrepresented.

“There are not really many new solicitors coming into the criminal legal aid practices down the country. It's not manageable,” he said.

“Most of us are self employed, we have huge staffing costs and IT systems, everything has just ballooned.”

Mr Duffy said courts were now busier and cases were more complex. “More complex cases means more disclosure [of evidence] and that's not accounted for in the legal aid system. We have to read the disclosure, meet clients. All that is included and there's nothing extra for that. It's not adequate. It's as simple as that.”

The solicitors said the proposed system is similar to one which had been introduced for civil and family law cases and they claimed that had resulted in a flight of solicitors from that sector.

“Literally there is one solicitor in Laois on the family law legal aid scheme. People have to go to Naas. There's a lot of people not represented because of that and that's where it'll end up. It's unworkable. I used to do family law legal aid but you cannot keep it going, with the administrative costs, the reports, all the extras,” said Mr Duffy.

Ms Maloney pointed to all the duties solicitors undertake for clients outside of the day in court. “There's a lot of out of court work we do but we're chasing reports, requesting doctor's letters etc that aren't accounted for on the days we appear in court. We're not looking for anything extra or for additional money. We're just asking that things not be changed or varied or reduced.”

She said the work of a solicitor was often seven days a week. “We often have special sittings, work Friday and Saturday, and we're often caught for things on Friday evenings.”

Related topics: Tullamore District Court Judge Andrew Cody Brian Duffy Sign up to our Offaly Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Offaly Live within your account.