SOLICITORS across West Cork will be resigning from the criminal free legal aid scheme en masse after new rules came into effect on Wednesday July 1st with the introduction of a €520 flat rate fee for criminal legal aid work.

The new flat fee is being introduced by the Department of Justice and since last Monday (June 22nd) solicitors at all district courts in West Cork have withdrawn their services over the ongoing dispute.

Speaking to The Southern Star, Mrya Dinneen, president of the West Cork Bar Association, said that pay dispute between the Law Society of Ireland has still not been resolved.

‘Individual solicitors will be resigning form the free legal aid board from July 1st,’ she said.

Ms Dinneen previously said there had been no active engagement from the Department of Justice on this issue and that the Law Society of Ireland had been proactively engaging with the Department of Justice over the past two years about bringing meaningful reform to the criminal legal aid system. She added that it was only as a ‘last resort’ that district court practitioners were taking this course of
action.

Most criminal cases across District Court 18 which takes in Bandon, Clonakilty, Bantry, Macroom and Skibbereen are now being adjourned to later dates as solicitors have withdrawn their services to represent people in court.

With no resolution in sight it could lead to a serious backlog of cases across the district courts after the summer recess in September.

Solicitors were previously paid for each court appearance, which started at €239.38 and then €59.86 for each subsequent hearing. However, new rules will mean that solicitors will now be paid a once-off flat fee of €520 per defendant, regardless of the number of court appearances.

Rosemary Loftus, president of the Law Society of Ireland said she understood that solicitors across the country were now resigning from criminal legal aid panels, which she said would have a ‘devastating impact’ on access to justice. She described the reforms as ‘a cost-cutting exercise dressed up as reform’ and were based on flawed assumptions rather than evidence.

In a statement she said that Minister O’Callaghan had written to the society confirming he intended to press ahead with the new payment model ‘regardless of the serious concerns the legal profession has raised.

Ms Loftus said victims of crime would face delays to trials, while vulnerable defendants, including children, people with addiction or serious mental health conditions, victims of trafficking and homeless people, would be disproportionately affected.