Legal advice for someone detained in a Garda station is covered by a State scheme. Cost should never be the reason a person goes into an interview alone.
Emergency line: 087 122 3080, answered day and night, including weekends and bank holidays.
Tell us where you are and we will call you straight back.
If someone is in a Garda station now, calling or WhatsApp is far faster than this form.
A State scheme, administered by the Legal Aid Board, that pays for legal advice to people detained in Garda stations.
The scheme exists for a simple reason. The right to consult a solicitor before and during a Garda interview is worth very little if the person holding it cannot afford to use it, and the point at which they must decide is the point at which they have the least ability to make arrangements. So the State pays for the advice.
The practical consequence is the one that matters: when you are asked in a Garda station whether you want a solicitor, the answer should not depend on what you think it will cost. It is covered. Say yes, name the firm you want, and ask for the request to be recorded in the custody record.
The commonest and most expensive mistake in a Garda station is declining a solicitor because of an assumption about the bill. People go into recorded interviews alone over a cost that the scheme was created to remove.
The boundary is the station door. Inside it, the scheme. Outside it, a different scheme entirely.
In other words: the advice you need at the moment you need it.
Those fall under criminal legal aid, which is a separate application decided by a judge. See below.
The scheme is means-based, and the assessment is far less demanding than most people expect.
Eligibility turns on your means: your income, and whether you can reasonably be expected to pay for the advice yourself. A statement of means is completed as part of the process. You do not need to have anything with you, and you do not need to prove anything at three in the morning.
Two things people wrongly believe rule them out:
If you turn out not to qualify, you will be told, and you can then decide with full information. What you should not do is decide in advance, on an assumption, at the one moment where getting it wrong costs the most.
There is no form to find and no office to ring. It happens inside the station, and mostly it happens around you.
Out loud, to the member in charge, and ask for the request to be recorded in the custody record. Name the firm you want: you are entitled to nominate your own solicitor rather than take whoever is next on a list.
You do not have to use the exact name. “I want a solicitor and I want it under the legal aid scheme” is enough to be understood.
Or you can ring directly if you are permitted to make the call yourself. Our line is 087 122 3080, answered at any hour.
Before anything is agreed, so that you know where you stand rather than finding out afterwards.
Handled as part of the process. It is paperwork, and it is not a reason to delay advice.
For the advice covered by it. If anything falls outside, you are told in advance and in writing, not billed for afterwards.
People confuse these constantly, and the confusion costs them advice they were entitled to.
The Garda Station Legal Advice Revised Scheme. Administered by the Legal Aid Board. Covers the consultation and attendance at interview while you are detained. Means-assessed, with a statement of means.
Applies from the moment you are detained.
A separate application, decided by the judge. Two things are weighed: whether your means are insufficient to pay for representation yourself, and whether the gravity of the charge or exceptional circumstances make representation essential in the interests of justice.
Applies only once you are before a court.
The means assessment for the court scheme looks at income, assets, dependants, rent or mortgage and outgoings. If a case is sent forward to the Circuit or Central Criminal Court, an existing certificate carries forward.
Qualifying for one does not automatically decide the other, and being refused one does not decide the other either. They are assessed separately, by different people, against different tests.
You still get advice, and you still get told the cost in advance.
If an assessment puts you outside the scheme, we tell you on the call, before anything is agreed, together with what the advice would cost privately. You then decide with the actual figures in front of you rather than with a guess.
What we will not do is let the question hang while an interview starts. Establishing whether the scheme covers you takes a couple of minutes on the phone. The interview does not wait for it, so we do it first.
Not sure where you stand? Ring 087 122 3080. We will assess eligibility with you on the call, at any hour, before any commitment is made.
The questions people ask about paying for a solicitor at a Garda station.
Legal advice for a person detained in a Garda station is covered by the Garda Station Legal Advice Revised Scheme, administered by the Legal Aid Board. It covers the consultation and attendance at interview. The scheme is means-assessed and a statement of means is completed as part of the process, but cost should never be the reason someone goes into a recorded interview without advice.
The advice you need while you are detained: the initial consultation by phone or in person, attendance by the solicitor at the station, presence during interviews under caution, and further consultations between interviews. It does not cover the court case afterwards, which falls under criminal legal aid and is a separate application decided by a judge.
Being employed does not by itself put you outside the scheme. Eligibility turns on means rather than on whether you have an income at all. If an assessment puts you outside it, you will be told, and you can decide then with the actual figures rather than an assumption.
Inside the station. Tell the member in charge that you want a solicitor, ask for the request to be recorded in the custody record, name the firm you want, and say that you want it under the legal aid scheme. The station contacts the solicitor, or you ring directly if you are permitted to make the call. The statement of means is handled as part of the process.
No, and confusing the two costs people advice they were entitled to. The station scheme covers advice while you are detained and is administered by the Legal Aid Board. Criminal legal aid covers representation in the court case, is applied for separately, and is decided by the judge, weighing your means against the gravity of the charge and the interests of justice.
Yes. You are entitled to nominate your own solicitor rather than take whoever is next on a list. Ask for Ferrys Solicitors by name and ask for that request to be recorded. You only take someone else if your chosen solicitor genuinely cannot be contacted, and if you are told that, ask for the attempts and their times to be recorded.
If you are in a Garda station, or someone has rung you from one, ring us before any interview begins. We will assess whether the scheme covers the advice while we are on the phone, and if it does not, we will tell you what it costs before anything is agreed.
General information, not legal advice. This page describes Irish criminal procedure in general terms. Every case turns on its own facts and the law changes. Nothing here creates a solicitor–client relationship, and no outcome is promised or implied. For advice on your own situation, speak to a solicitor.
Ferrys Solicitors LLP is regulated by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. Content reviewed by Tony Collier, solicitor. Last reviewed PENDING.
