The Belfast Telegraph carried the Press Association's July 17, 2026 report on the criminal legal aid dispute, in which Ferrys Solicitors partner Tony Collier responded to the Minister for Justice's defence of his fee reforms. Our criminal defence solicitors act for clients in the District Court, Circuit Court and Central Criminal Court, much of it under the criminal legal aid scheme.
The Minister, Jim O'Callaghan, said legal aid cases averaged five court appearances against three for non-legal aid cases, and suggested the extra fee for each adjournment under the old scheme meant cases were "adjourned on a far too routine basis".
Mr Collier's answer went to the heart of what Ferrys' criminal defence team sees every day. He said it was "entirely unfair" to compare the two categories, as legal aid cases often involve vulnerable people from disadvantaged backgrounds, with the vast majority involving drug and alcohol difficulties.
"We see an increasing amount of clients who are suffering with psychiatric difficulties, and unfortunately, they end up in the criminal justice system and a lot of supports that they should receive in the community they now unfortunately have to receive that in custody," he said.
What drives adjournments
A client with an addiction may need time to engage with a treatment programme before sentence. A client with a psychiatric condition may require assessment before the court can decide fitness to plead. In many cases the adjournment is sought by the prosecution, because directions from the DPP have not arrived or disclosure is incomplete. None of these delays are within the solicitor's control, and each one requires the solicitor to attend court.
Under the scheme introduced on July 1, a solicitor receives €520 per client regardless of how many of those attendances are needed. Ferrys' position is that this penalises the firms representing the most vulnerable clients.
The panel figure
Mr Collier also challenged the Minister's reliance on a panel of 850 solicitors, describing the figure as "inaccurate" because it includes solicitors who have retired, died, become judges or joined the DPP's office. He said a large number of solicitors had resigned from the panel and those who had not were not accepting new assignments under the new regime, with very few exceptions.
The Minister said he was seeing "a lot of claims activity" and that the multiple certificates issued in respect of one person were issues he "just couldn't hide away from". He committed to publishing comparative figures in due course.