{"id":604712,"date":"2026-08-26T02:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/604712\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T02:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:10:12","slug":"legal-aid-row-justice-minister-says-law-society-bags-concessions-and-wants-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/604712\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal aid row: Justice minister says Law Society \u2018bags\u2019 concessions and wants more"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Journal<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

JUSTICE MINISTER JIM O\u2019Callaghan has criticised the Law Society\u2019s approach to the criminal legal aid dispute but said he is hopeful the issue will be resolved by the time the courts fully return from recess in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking on The Journal\u2018s political podcast The Candidate<\/a>, O\u2019Callaghan said there is a \u201cvery vocal group\u201d of solicitors opposed to his reforms, but that a quieter, larger group are happy to work under the new scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked whether he expects to have to make further changes to the system, the minister voiced his frustration with the Law Society, the representative body for solicitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I\u2019m going to engage with the Law Society. I\u2019ve made changes already. One of my concerns is every time I make a concession, the Law Society just bag it and say, \u2018Well, we want more\u2019.<\/p>\n

The minister added that he does not want to \u201csay anything that\u2019s going to aggravate the circumstance\u201d but stressed that work is ongoing in the District Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t hear from the solicitors who are doing the work. Work is ongoing in the [District] Court. But this idea that \u2018let\u2019s put pressure on the minister and he\u2019s going to revoke the regulations\u2019, that\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan said he recognises the \u201creally important role that solicitors play in the criminal justice process\u201d but that he had to take action against abuses in the payment system for legal aid fees in the District Court.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe solicitors made a number of submissions to me before the 1 July when the new rules came in. I took on board a number of their submissions,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Criminal legal aid solicitors have been locked in a row with the Department of Justice for weeks over the overhaul of the fee system for their work.<\/p>\n

Solicitors have criticised the change because they will earn a flat fee regardless of how many appearances are involved in a case.<\/p>\n

In response to the dispute, some solicitors have withdrawn their services, resulting in delays to legal cases and some defendants having to represent themselves in court.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to the pushback from solicitors, O\u2019Callaghan increased the fee initially proposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve a good relationship with the Law Society, I want to see that continue,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said today, adding that, based on his engagement with solicitors, he also split up the fee<\/a> so that it is in part paid on the first and last day of a case.<\/p>\n

The minister added that he will look at issues related to the Children\u2019s Court after the new scheme has been operating for three or four months and said that \u201cif there needs to be changes to that, I\u2019m open to changing it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I could not allow the system to continue as it was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Listen to Jim O\u2019Callaghan\u2019s full interview on The Candidate here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Journal \/ YouTube JUSTICE MINISTER JIM O\u2019Callaghan has criticised the Law Society\u2019s approach to the criminal legal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[256249,61,60,30379,43],"class_list":["post-604712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-criminal-legal-aid","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-o","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604712","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=604712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}