Legal Aid

The Irish Criminal Bar Association (ICBA) is seeking the views of criminal prosecutions on the future of the legal aid scheme in the District Court. The ICBA has launched a short survey, the results of which will be presented at a meeting in the Criminal Courts of Justice next Thursday.

The Bar Council of Ireland has called on criminal barristers to take part in a one-day strike this October in a major escalation of its campaign for fee restoration. Sara Phelan SC, chair, said the Bar Council had been "left with no choice" as a result of the government's failure to restore fees for

A leading psychiatrist has withdrawn from criminal legal aid work due to the "derisory remuneration" on offer. In a letter seen by Irish Legal News, Professor Patricia Casey — a professor emeritus of psychiatry at University College Dublin and a consultant at Blackrock Health — said she

At least 4,400 people were unable to get through to FLAC's telephone line in 2022 due to overwhelming demand, the independent legal, equality and human rights organisation's latest annual report reveals. Mr Justice Frank Clarke, the former Chief Justice and chair of the civil legal aid review group,

The names of the barristers and solicitors who earned the most from the criminal legal aid scheme in 2022 have been published. John M. Quinn was the highest-earning solicitor and highest earner overall, with €664,247.77 in income through the scheme.

The government has signalled an openness to reforming the criminal legal aid system to provide for direct payments to barristers practising in the District Court.

Just 14 applications for a legal aid eligibility waiver on the grounds of domestic abuse have been issued since they became available in Northern Ireland over a year ago, new figures show. The Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021, which came into force in February 2022,&n

The civil legal aid scheme should be extended to cover housing issues amid a "protracted housing, homelessness and accommodation crisis", the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has recommended. The rights body has published its submission to the independent review of the civil legal aid sche

The Bar of Ireland is seeking talks with ministers over fee restoration for barristers after reports that the government would consider increases in exchange for unspecified concessions. Professional fees paid to barristers practising criminal law on behalf of the State were slashed by amounts rangi

Barristers staged protests outside of courthouses yesterday to condemn the "pitiful rates" paid to defence lawyers practising in the District Court under the criminal legal aid scheme. Dozens of junior lawyers, joined by a handful of senior colleagues in a show of solidarity, gathered outside the Cr

Northern Ireland's Law Society and Bar Council have warned of a looming "catastrophe for access to justice" in a joint letter to the Northern Ireland secretary and the Northern Ireland affairs committee. The letter warns that Northern Ireland's justice system is already in a poor state, with a court

New legislation transferring responsibility for the criminal legal aid scheme to the Legal Aid Board will be drafted this summer under government plans published today. Justice Plan 2023, outlining over 140 actions to be taken by the government this year, was published today by justice minister Simo

Joan Crawford has been appointed as the new chief executive officer of the Legal Aid Board. The Legal Aid Board is the statutory, independent body responsible for the provision of civil legal aid and advice to people of modest means.

Criminal barristers are set to stage another protest over the level of fees paid to practitioners in the District Court.

Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell this morning opened a second two-day conference on access to justice, this time focusing on civil legal aid. We reproduce below the bulk of his opening address. Civil legal aid might indeed have been an obvious focus of the first conference of the Access to Justice Grou