Legal Aid

The Legal Aid Board has denied claims that cuts to fees for solicitors advising international protection applicants will impact access to justice for a vulnerable group of people. An immigration solicitor told Irish Legal News last week that the new fee structure for the International Protection Sol

The Legal Aid Board is bracing for an increase in demand and delays in accessing legal services due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its chairperson Philip O'Leary has said.

Fresh cuts to legal aid for international protection applications will further limit access to justice for vulnerable people, lawyers have warned. The new legal aid scheme includes dramatic cuts, such as reducing the fee for preparing submissions for an application by 58 per cent from €730 to &

Legal rights group FLAC assisted around 27,000 people last year as it marked its 50th anniversary, according to its latest annual report. Over the course of 2019, FLAC dealt with over 26,995 requests for legal information/advice through its telephone line and its network of 72 legal clinics.

More than 5,000 local law firms and up to half of law centres in England and Wales could go bust as a result of the COVID-19 crisis if the UK government does not step in, MPs have warned. In a new report, Westminster's justice select committee has urged the Ministry of Justice to consider further gr

The new government's programme "falls short" on access to justice in a number of key areas, legal rights group FLAC has said. In its new 17-page response to the Programme for Government, FLAC has repeated its call for a "root-and-branch" review of the civil legal aid system.

A 64-year-old cleaner has won an age and disability discrimination case in the Workplace Relations Commission with support from legal rights group FLAC. The woman, represented by FLAC managing solicitor Sinead Lucey, took proceedings after being dismissed on the grounds of age and ill health from he

Law centres are facing dramatic increases in calls from workers concerned about their employment rights during the coronavirus pandemic. Community Law and Mediation (CLM), with law centres in Dublin and Limerick, has said it is "at capacity" after a 196 per cent year-on-year increase in consultation

The number of applications to the legal aid agency's COVID-19 interim payment scheme has fallen sharply in its second full week of operation. The Legal Services Agency (LSA) received 444 requests in the week ending 22 May 2020, a 45 per cent decline from 818 in the previous week.

Nearly a third of solicitor applications and nearly half of barrister applications to the legal aid agency's COVID-19 interim payment scheme have been rejected. The Legal Services Agency (LSA), which launched the scheme two weeks ago, has revealed it had received 818 requests by Friday 15 May.

Over a quarter of applications to the interim payment scheme set up by the legal aid agency in response to the coronavirus pandemic have been rejected. As of Monday night, the Legal Services Agency (LSA) had processed 264 requests under the COVID-19 interim payments scheme which came into operation

Over £2 million in legal aid fees has not yet been paid to lawyers because their claims have not been resubmitted after being queried by the Legal Services Agency (LSA). There were 1,767 queries with a total value of £2.24 million awaiting replies and resubmission from 139 different firm

The next government should commit to a root and branch review of the civil legal aid scheme, legal rights group FLAC has said. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaders are currently in talks to form a historic coalition government on the basis of a paper published earlier this week.

Criminal barristers have been told they will receive legal aid payments for adjourned cases during the coronavirus lockdown and "refresher fees" when trials resume. The Department of Justice confirmed in response to representations from The Bar of Ireland that brief fees will be paid now in respect

The law firms and barristers earning most from legal aid in Northern Ireland are no longer being named out of concerns about GDPR rules. The Legal Services Agency has not published details payments made to solicitor firms and individual barristers for four years.