Strike impacts Nenagh court

Several cases could not be dealt with at Nenagh District Court last week due to the ongoing legal aid strike.

Last June local solicitors joined a nationwide strike over the introduction by the Minister for Justice of a flat fee for legal aid payments. The strike remains in effect, and its impact was apparent in court in Nenagh last Friday when most of the listed cases could not proceed because defendants had no solicitor to represent them.

Among these were nine contested cases listed for hearing, all of which were put back to November or December. New dates had to be found for several other cases due to the same reason. Defendants were in some cases remanded in custody or on continuing bail to the new date.

The strike seems set to continue, prompting fears of a major backlog of court cases in the months ahead. In Dublin, around 100 criminal defence solicitors staged a protest walkout from the district court last week. However, Clare-based solicitors who previously withdrew their services as part of the dispute have reportedly now ended their protest action and resumed work on all legal aid cases.