Number of court cases adjourned due to withdrawal of legal aid work by solicitors
A number of cases listed at the Central and Circuit Criminal Courts have been adjourned this week due to the withdrawal of legal aid work by solicitors.
Counsel acting for the defence in the affected cases told the presiding judge, Mr Justice Paul McDermott, that they were not attended by a solicitor and did not have instructions.
Several individual defence solicitors acting were present, with one telling the judge when the case they were instructed in was called, “with the greatest respect to the court, I’m withdrawing my services”.
Mr Justice McDermott thanked the solicitors who were present.
While dealing with the Central Criminal Court’s case management list, the judge said the court expected that if individual solicitors are going to withdraw their services, they should “come to court and indicate that, not simply as a matter of courtesy to the court”, but also so the court could “address in advance any proposed withdrawal of service”.
He noted that people may have travelled to attend court, complainants may be expecting to give evidence in a trial, and others, including the jury panel, have made themselves available to the court.
The judge said the court was asking that “solicitors come to court to inform the court there is a difficulty and the case is affected by this dispute”.
Two Central Criminal Court cases involving sexual offences, which were listed for sentence and in which the accused men were in custody, were attended by solicitors and finalised.
In Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday, a number of cases in which defence barristers indicated that they were neither instructed nor attended, Judge Orla Crowe adjourned the cases in full to another date.
Judge Crowe is the presiding judge in court number 5. This is the first appearance for circuit criminal court cases and involves an extensive list of cases for mention, for arraignment and for sentence.
Cases in which an accused was in custody generally went ahead as the barrister was attended by a solicitor and had instructions.
On Wednesday, five out of the eight cases which were listed for sentence before Judge Crowe were adjourned in full as the defence barrister was not present or instructed.
These cases involved accused who were on bail and included a case of harassment, an armed burglary, a man who had pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual activity in the presence of a child and a man who admitted an offence of criminal damage.
Cases listed for trial in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court were also adjourned.
It has been reported that solicitors will not be carrying out criminal legal aid work in courts on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in a dispute over a proposed legal aid reform involving solicitor fees.
