{"id":509685,"date":"2026-06-20T13:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509685\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T13:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:59:19","slug":"cork-courts-set-to-grind-to-a-complete-halt-over-ongoing-legal-aid-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509685\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork courts set to \u2018grind to a complete halt\u2019 over ongoing legal aid row"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">Cork solicitors are to withdraw their services from the courts from next Monday in a move expected to \u201cgrind the criminal justice system in Cork to a complete halt\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It comes amid an ongoing row with the Government about changes to the criminal legal aid system from July 1, which has seen criminal lawyers in various areas of the country withdraw services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A new flat rate is proposed for criminal aid work from next month, instead of practitioners being paid per hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">On Wednesday, a number of cases listed before the Central Criminal Court and Dublin Circuit Criminal Court were adjourned due to the withdrawal of legal aid work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">From next Monday, criminal legal aid solicitors in Cork will withdraw from all criminal work in all courts, with the exception of ongoing trials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Unanimous support<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">This includes juvenile, protocol, and custody work. A vote was taken by individual solicitors at a meeting on Wednesday, where there was unanimous support for the measures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Thomas Coughlan, a criminal legal aid solicitor practising in\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echolive.ie\/corknews\/arid-41864811.html\">Cork city<\/a>, said: \u201cThis will grind the criminal justice system in Cork to a complete halt. The ask is that the minister [for justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan] withdraw the proposal for a flat fee criminal legal aid payment from July 1, and engage with the Law Society of Ireland on behalf of solicitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">He added: \u201cIndividual solicitors have decided, following conversations with each other, that we are withdrawing from service because the proposal of the minister is unacceptable, on lots of levels, and there has been no meaningful engagement with the Law Society of Ireland about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cWhile this withdrawal of service is coming from the grassroots, we are all members of the Law Society of Ireland, and the Law Society would speak on behalf of the profession in any consultation with the minister for justice.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Government sources said the changes are aimed at addressing \u201cabuse\u201d of the system. There has been a 94% increase since 2015 in criminal legal aid expenditure, rising from \u20ac19m in 2015 to \u20ac37m in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Open letter\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">In an open letter to Mr O\u2019Callaghan, seen by  The Echo, Cork solicitor Diarmuid Kelleher said: \u201cAs a practising criminal solicitor of over 40 years standing, I am in equal measures shocked, appalled, and saddened by the treatment being meted out by you to myself and my colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">He described the proposal to pay a flat fee of \u20ac100 for cases sent forward to the circuit or criminal courts as \u201cdownright contemptible\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said it had a constructive meeting with the Law Society on Tuesday and \u201cboth sides agreed to meet again this week\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It will continue to \u201cengage constructively with the representative bodies to deliver a reformed criminal legal aid system that works for all stakeholders, is efficient and effective, and provides value for money for the taxpayer\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork solicitors are to withdraw their services from the courts from next Monday in a move expected to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2246,79,54,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-509685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cork-court","tag-cork-news","tag-courts","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}