Criminal law cases at the Courts of Criminal Justice could face disruption tomorrow due to protest action by lawyers angry about cuts in the legal aid system.
Criminal law solicitors and barristers will formally abstain from handling cases in the six district courts located at the Courts of Criminal Justice.
They are protesting about reductions in payments for criminal lawyers as well as the legal aid cuts.
The Courts Service said that all cases due to appear before the courts in the Criminal Courts of Justice tomorrow are listed to be heard as normal.
It said that if the issue of the absence of legal practitioners in certain cases arises, it will be a matter for each judge to decide, in each case, what action should be taken.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter says he finds the threatened strike action absolutely extraordinary.
He said the organisation, last September, expressed concern that the principle of parity in relation to legal fees would no longer apply to lawyers representing both the prosecution and the defence.
The Minister said this concern proved groundless.
He said, until the formation of this organisation, issues of this nature were dealt with by the Department of Justice in dialogue with the traditional representatives of the legal profession, the Law Society and the Bar Council.
He said both bodies had demonstrated a responsible attitude that one would expect from the legal profession in these difficult times.
The contrasting approach of the newly formed group, he said, has been marked.
He said baring in mind that its leadership comprises of some of the highest earners in the legal aid scheme, he has to deplore last Friday's threat, made to withdraw services to criminal legal aid clients.
Spokesperson solicitor Dara Robinson said the lawyers would engage in a "token and temporary" withdrawal of services in the Dublin location only.
However, as yet it is unclear how many solicitors and barristers will take part in the protest.
Mr Robinson estimated that around 200 cases could be affected by the one-day industrial action.
However, he stressed that the lawyers would handle bail applications for accused persons currently in custody.
He said lawyers were frustrated by the failure of Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to meet them to discuss the future of the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme.
Mr Robinson said fees for practitioners had been cut by 30% across the board since 2007 and a further 20% cut in the legal aid budget was anticipated.
He said the system was already at breaking point.
Bar Council chairman Paul O'Higgins said the Bar Council does not approve of the proposed industrial action.
He said barristers had an obligation professionally to represent their clients, unless the solicitor withdrew their instructions, in which case they cannot appear for the client.
Mr O'Higgins declined to speculate on the possibility of the Bar Council taking disciplinary action against barristers taking part in tomorrow's protest.
The Law Society, which represents solicitors, said it was not supporting the proposed withdrawal of services, but was sympathetic to practitioners who had suffered cuts by successive governments in the criminal legal aid scheme.
The society said that at meetings with Department of Justice officials, they had extracted commitments that savings in the Criminal Legal Aid scheme in future would be made elsewhere in the system, rather than in rates of pay to solicitors, which have already been cut to the bone.
