{"id":564155,"date":"2026-07-23T11:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564155\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:30:08","slug":"department-of-justice-received-78-legal-aid-invoices-for-individuals-theft-charges-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564155\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Justice received 78 legal aid invoices for individual\u2019s theft charges \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Solicitors secured 78 criminal legal aid certificates for representing one accused charged with theft offences before the District Court<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

The Dublin case, involving at least as many charges of theft, was one of more than 30 in the last 18 months to accrue dozens of legal aid certificates, which are essentially payment invoices, according to data from the Department of Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More than 100 cases in that period involved at least 10 invoices being sent to the department concerning individual clients whose charges were dealt with together in or in quick succession before the District Court. <\/p>\n

Until July 1st, a legal aid regulation provided that only one certificate was typically paid for cases heard together or in quick succession against a single accused unless the court directed otherwise for \u201cgood reason\u201d. <\/p>\n

This regulation was amended as part of Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a>\u2019s controversial reforms of the legal aid payment model. It now says \u201cone legal aid certificate only shall be granted\u201d to a person charged with offences listed together at their commencement.<\/p>\n

The highest number of certificates approved in the District Court in the last 18 months was 130 for an individual charged in Dublin with at least this many money-laundering offences.<\/p>\n

Another case referenced by the Department of Justice concerned an accused whose legal team received 94 legal aid certificates for covering 94 or more counts of making gain or causing loss by deception. There were 93 certificates approved in Wexford for a person charged with numerous counts of sexual assault. <\/p>\n

Letterkenny District Court approved 70 certificates for a person charged with at least 70 theft offences last spring and 56 for another individual accused of multiple theft counts last year.<\/p>\n

The legal profession overwhelmingly opposes the Minister\u2019s introduction of a \u20ac520 single flat fee per criminal legal aid client, saying it incorrectly treats all cases the same and will restrict access to justice. <\/p>\n

Many criminal defence solicitors in Dublin and across the State took part in a near-total withdrawal of services on Wednesday, with plans to continue this action on Thursday and over three days next week.<\/p>\n

The new single flat fee of \u20ac520 is irrespective of the number of court appearances. This replaces the previous system of about \u20ac239 for a first appearance and \u20ac60 for each subsequent appearance. <\/p>\n

The Minister on Thursday defended his reforms, saying the changes were designed to ensure the system is sped up and that adjournments are dealt with \u201cmuch more stringently\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan said he will meet the Law Society<\/a> and is sure there are \u201csome areas … where they can make points to me that I will accept and engage with them on\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to go back to the old system whereby multiple certificates can be issued to solicitors who are representing the one accused before the District Court,\u201d he told RT\u00c9\u2019s Morning Ireland radio show.<\/p>\n

A recent Department of Justice review of the criminal legal scheme said the regulation permitting additional legal aid certificates for \u201cgood reason\u201d allowed solicitors to \u201cmaximise\u201d earnings in ways not envisaged by the original legislation. <\/p>\n

The overall number of cases involving multiple legal aid certificates for a single accused had \u201cincreased dramatically\u201d, and the regulation had become a \u201cmajor issue\u201d, placing \u201cstrain\u201d on the legal aid budget.<\/p>\n

The department says the cost of the criminal legal aid scheme for the District Court increased from \u20ac19.3 million in 2015 to \u20ac40.7 million last year.<\/p>\n

The Law Society has said it is \u201castounding\u201d that the department failed to create exemptions to the flat fee for categories of cases where proceedings are known to be considerably longer. Such cases almost always require additional time, additional court appearances and repeated engagement with a solicitor, it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Solicitors secured 78 criminal legal aid certificates for representing one accused charged with theft offences before the District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9691,5721,42,18573,19394,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-564155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-department-of-justice","tag-district-court","tag-headlines","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-law-society","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\/564155","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=564155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}