Legal aid firm advised barristers to ask judges to routinely assign multiple solicitors to single client
A Dublin law firm advised barristers to artificially split client charges across multiple solicitors to maximize legal aid payments. This practice, which was used to prevent revenue loss, has been scrutinized following recent reforms to the criminal legal aid system.
Why it matters
It exposes potential systemic exploitation of the legal aid budget, leading to government reforms in how legal services are compensated.
A law firm advised barristers to routinely ask judges to assign multiple solicitors to individual clients facing numerous charges, so that additional legal aid would be secured.
The practice was permitted and commonly used by some law firms until July 1st this year, when Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan introduced reforms reducing criminal legal aid payments in a scheme strongly opposed by much of the legal profession. The procedure of assigning multiple solicitors from the same firm to a defendant facing multiple charges listed together before the court was referenced in a Department of Justice review of criminal legal aid cases that informed changes to the legal aid system.
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