Legal Aid

The run-up to next month’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections has been dominated by the lingering impact of Brexit, with unionist opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol threatening to prevent the formation of a new power-sharing Executive. But Naomi Long, leader of the cross-community Al

Criminal trials in England and Wales could stop completely from today as barristers take industrial action over legal aid funding for defence practitioners. The Criminal Bar Association is moving ahead with its work-to-rule, with bar leaders saying they were taking action because real incomes for cr

A group of barristers in Dublin stopped work this morning for the second time in a month in protest of low legal aid payments in criminal cases.

The criminal legal aid sector in England and Wales is to receive up to an extra £135 million a year following a consultation, the UK government has announced. The move follows an announcement this week that 94 per cent of Criminal Bar Association members had voted in favour of industrial actio

The Criminal Bar Association has voted to take industrial action in protest at the level of fees paid to them. About 1,800 criminal barristers voted to work to rule from April 11. This is only the second time the CBA has taken such action.

Proposed cuts to Northern Ireland's justice budget have the "potential to cause generational harm", the Law Society and the Bar have warned. In a joint submission to the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice, the representative bodies said many solicitor firms "would simply not survive

The top criminal legal aid lawyers in the State earned as much as €690,000 last year as total payments under the criminal legal aid scheme topped €68 million, new figures reveal. Michael Bowman SC topped the table for senior counsel by a considerable margin with payments of €692,095 i

Criminal barristers in Dublin briefly stopped work yesterday morning in protest of the low fees paid to defence lawyers in the District Court.

The legal aid financial eligibility test has been waived in Northern Ireland for victims of domestic abuse who need to respond to an application by their abuser. Justice minister Naomi Long yesterday commenced section 28 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021, which

Proposed cuts to Northern Ireland's justice budget would create "legal aid deserts" with access to justice severely curtailed or completely non-existent in many local towns, Stormont's justice committee will be warned today. Representatives from the Law Society and the Bar will tell MLAs that propos

Legal rights group FLAC has welcomed the Irish government's acceptance of four UN recommendations on civil legal aid. Ireland has accepted over 200 recommendations arising from the UN Human Rights Council's recent review of Ireland's human rights record through the universal period review (UPR) mech

Solicitors can now apply once for all the counties whose legal aid panels they wish to be placed on under a streamlined process. The Courts Service said it had replaced the "cumbersome process of having to apply separately in each individual county".

Nuala Jackson SC has been appointed as chairperson of the Legal Aid Board for a five-year term. Ms Jackson was an ordinary member of the outgoing Board. Six members of the outgoing Board have been reappointed while six new appointments have been made.

Demand for civil legal aid fell sharply last year as public health restrictions were put in place, new figures from the Legal Aid Board reveal. The number of applicants seeking civil legal aid services from the Board's law centres totalled 14,383 in 2020, down by nearly a fifth on the previous year,

Legal rights group FLAC has said an additional €3 million in funding for the Legal Aid Board is "a welcome step in the right direction but only a drop in the ocean in terms of what is needed". Justice minister Heather Humphreys yesterday welcomed a five per cent budget increase for the justice