{"id":620787,"date":"2026-09-10T22:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620787\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:06:15","slug":"teenagers-appear-in-court-without-legal-representation-due-to-solicitors-strike-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620787\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenagers appear in court without legal representation due to solicitors strike \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of 12 teenagers before Dublin Children\u2019s Court<\/a> on Wednesday, facing charges including for theft, assault, stealing cars, possession of drugs, and carrying weapons, just one had a solicitor due to the ongoing strike over legal aid reforms<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Several, aged between 16 and 17, had no one with them in court. One 18-year-old who was alone when he came before the president of the District Court, Judge Paul Kelly, was disabled. <\/p>\n

The judge handed several children Post-it notes detailing the date of their next court appearance, advising them: \u201cNow don\u2019t lose that. Ring your solicitor and tell them that date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s rights advocates described the appearance of children in court without legal representation as \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d.<\/p>\n

A 17-year-old boy, with neither a solicitor nor family member in court, was asked by Kelly if he had spoken to his solicitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I haven\u2019t seen him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to talk to him and find out what his advice to you on this case is,\u201d said the judge. \u201cYou will be 18 in December this year?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Law Society asks Minister to consider mediator in bid to end legal aid fees rowOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we need to try to get this sorted,\u201d the judge said, noting he could be transferred to the adult courts at that point. <\/p>\n

The boy said: \u201cI have been attending my community service\u201d, and was working valeting cars. <\/p>\n

\"DublinDublin Children’s Court in Smithfield. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to put this back four weeks and hope there might be progress with the solicitor\u2019s strike,\u201d said Kelly, handing the boy a Post-it with his next court date. <\/p>\n

Most of the cases were adjourned due to the absence of legal representation.<\/p>\n

One boy, whose probation report noted he had a \u201cnegative peer group\u201d, was asked by the judge if he understood what that was. He shook his head and the judge explained. <\/p>\n

A number were asked if they understood their bail conditions and asked to \u201crepeat them back in your own words\u201d. One stumbled over these. Another, ordered to stay out of Dublin 1 and 2, was asked if he knew where these areas were. <\/p>\n

\u201cHave you spoken to your solicitor?\u201d the judge asked a 16-year-old accompanied in court by his mother. \u201cNo,\u201d his mother replied. \u201cHe just reminded us of the court date.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not much I can do today in absence of your solicitor. I\u2019ll put it back a few weeks and see if anything resolves.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 17-year-old boy, described in court as \u201cone of the most vulnerable children in Ireland\u201d, had a solicitor paid privately by Tusla. <\/p>\n

The boy, who has been in care since 2021, had been remanded in Oberstown last week for repeatedly breaching bail conditions set on foot of charges in connection with carrying a blade and possessing \u20ac10-worth of cocaine. <\/p>\n

The judge released him on bail on strict conditions that he abide by a curfew and stay out of Dublin city centre. <\/p>\n

Saoirse Brady, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said the appearance of \u201cvulnerable, marginalised children\u201d in court without legal representation underlined the \u201curgent\u201d need to resolve the solicitors\u2019 strike.<\/p>\n

Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children\u2019s Rights Alliance said: \u201cIt is deeply concerning that children are appearing before courts with no one advocating for them.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of 12 teenagers before Dublin Children\u2019s Court on Wednesday, facing charges including for theft, assault, stealing cars, possession…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[631,61,60,19394,43],"class_list":["post-620787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-for-you","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-law-society","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620787","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=620787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}