Judge fears Mayo legal aid dispute may result in apathy among witnesses and victims

A Mayo judge fears that vulnerable victims and witnesses to crime may turn away from the court system as the legal aid dispute escalates in Mayo.

The dispute between solicitors and the Department of Justice over legal aid reform looks no closer to a resolution after solicitors announced that they are withdrawing their services for all criminal cases including custody cases and cases involving children.

At yesterday's sitting of Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court, of the 21 cases listed for trial this week only one will go ahead while the rest including three sentencing hearings were adjourned to later dates.

Speaking at the end of the call over, Judge Eoin Garavan warned that the escalation of the dispute in Mayo will have a huge impact on the court system and fears it will have consequences for years to come.

“No doubt what happened in court today is happening around the country. The warning must be given that escalating this dispute, and the position within Castlebar is it is escalating, and I have no doubt that by next February we will have in excess of 200 cases ready to proceed which is a good two years work given the amount of time we sit and that is how far behind we are.

“This will result in people who should be in prison not being in prison and witnesses and vulnerable complainants saying to the court service to get your house in order and then we will go into court. If their cases do not go ahead time and time again they will lose interest and that clearly is inimical to justice and the rule of law.

“That is why this dispute will have huge effects and will possibly affect courts in Mayo and around the country for a few years. This is a worse situation than Covid because at least during Covid crime commission went down and there were less offences going on,” he said.

Mayo solicitors again choose not to appear before the circuit court which is now in the third week of the five week sitting. Up to now only cases involving people remanded in custody went ahead in the circuit court but now these cases are not being dealt with.

Four defendants in custody who are due to face a trial appeared in court yesterday and none were represented by a solicitor. As a courtesy to the court, they were represented by barristers who informed Judge Garavan that they had received no instructions.

During the proceedings, counsel for the prosecution, Pat Reynolds reminded the court of guidance issued by the Bar Council of Ireland on Friday that solicitors or barristers representing a client in custody cannot withdraw from a case without getting permission from the court and the application must be made by the solicitor themselves.

Judge Garavan said it was not that simple for a solicitor to say they were not attending court because of a dispute as they are duty bound to attend the court to inform what their position is when clients are in custody.

He commented that the prosecution are entitled to ask him to insist the cases go ahead but was not in a position to do that but warned that solicitors may face potential disciplinary issues as a result.

“I am simply pointing out that there needs to be a preliminary application and that is the law and I would be failing my duties to just ignore it. It is a matter for the solicitors ultimately,” he said.