Payments to lawyers on the criminal legal aid scheme have increased this year by 5 per cent to €27.3m – despite the curtailing of court business since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. New figures provided by the Department of Justice show that for the first five months of this year criminal legal aid payments to solicitors and barristers total €27.3m - compared to €25.9m for the corresponding period in 2019. The department moved to cushion solicitors and barristers on the criminal legal aid scheme from the economic impact of Covid-19 by paying them their brief fees rather than the standard adjournment fee even though all non-urgent criminal cases were adjourned during lockdown. As a result, senior counsel and solicitors were paid their brief fee of €7,127 for murder trials that did not proceed during the lockdown and their brief fee of €1,716 and €1,144 respectively for cases in the circuit court that didn’t proceed. The spokesman stated that the department’s practice for the payment of brief fees during lockdown is in keeping with the approach adopted by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Source: The Irish Times June 30, 2020 15:25 UTC