Criminal courts grind to a halt as barristers strike over legal aid fees

Criminal court business ground to a halt in many courthouses around the country on Tuesday as barristers went on strike and protested in an escalation of their dispute over fees.

No hearing took place at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin because, due to the advance notice of the barristers’ action, trials already at hearing were adjourned in advance by the judiciary to continue on Wednesday.

The Bar Council had assured the judiciary it would take measures to ensure cases involving vulnerable witnesses and children would not be impacted.

Any trial listed at the Central Criminal Court had also been adjourned in advance.

Court sources said they did not anticipate the protests would have any significant impact on existing backlogs in the criminal courts.

The Central Criminal Court, which deals with murder cases and cases involving rape and other serious sexual crime, has made progress in reducing its backlogs but waiting times for a trial there can still extend up to a year for reasons including delays in getting expert reports. Cases involving children and vulnerable witnesses are usually heard within six months.

In Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where backlogs extend up to 18 months, five trials involving six defendants listed for hearing on |Tuesday at the Criminal Courts of Justice were adjourned by Judge Patricia Ryan for a day..

It is understood a similar approach of adjourning cases to Wednesday or later this week was followed in other courts around the country affected by the barristers’ protests.

Protests were organised at courthouses in Ennis, Cork, Tralee, Naas, Kilkenny, Limerick, Castlebar, Longford, Trim, Sligo, Clonmel, Bray, Waterford and Wexford.

Criminal business in the Dublin District Courts was also adversely affected as a result of solicitors supporting their barrister colleagues.

Business in the criminal courts is likely to be similarly affected if barristers protests proceed as planned on July 15th and 24th.

Sanctioned by the council of the Bar of Ireland, the protests come in the wake of an unprecedented withdrawal of services by criminal barristers last October.

They want the unwinding of all recession-era cuts still applicable to them and a mechanism to determine fees paid by the Director of Public Prosecutions and under the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Scheme.

Dozens of barristers, many bearing placards with the slogans ‘Fair is Fair’ and ‘’Government, the ball is in your court’ gathered outside the Courts of Criminal Justice in Dublin on Tuesday morning as rain fell heavily.

Bar council chair Sara Phelan said barristers were again protesting “because we still haven’t had a binding mechanism put in place to determine our fees”.

After last October’s protest, there was a 10 per cent fee restoration, she said. That restoration reflected a 10 per cent cut made in 2011 so barristers still have two eight per cuts that have not been restored, plus a 2.5 pay increase which was never implemented in 2008, she said.

On top of that, the link with public sector pay that was unilaterally broken in 2008 has not been restored, she added.

The Government had said it would engage with the council but “has not meaningfully engaged”, she said.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik, accompanied by Labour’s Dublin MEP Aodhán Ó Riordáin, were at the CCJ to support the criminal barristers.

“Barristers at the criminal Bar tend to earn much, much less than barristers in other areas of law and what we have seen is the State just not moving as it should have to restore pay rates,” Ms Bacik said. “We’re really concerned to see reports of attrition, people leaving the criminal Bar because of the lack of movement on pay rates, it’s so important that people have access to the best legal representation on criminal legal aid.”

Barrister Simon Donagh, who has practised at the criminal Bar for 12 years, said two out of every three criminal barristers leave within six years and the failure to restore pay rates is contributing to that.

“We’ve already seen trials where the DPP has struggled to get senior counsel to prosecute serious crime, that’s only a taste of what’s to come unless more is done to address this.”

Barrister Jane Murphy, in her ninth year of practice at the criminal Bar, said barristers have in recent years have been “fully co-operative” in terms of efficiencies which have contributed to “huge improvements” in the criminal justice system, including special measures to help vulnerable witnesses, pretrial hearings, implementation of the Victims Directive and electronic briefing.