A man accused of murder applies for legal aid which he is entitled to under the Irish criminal justice system and this is somehow the fault of barristers?

Like the rest of us maybe barristers should be a bit more flexible about the type of work that they have to take,
there is plenty of part time work in the service industry at the moment.

Or maybe the barrister industry in Ireland is over catered for or a dwindling sector.

well Harry a lit of the m have part time work in the retail and service industry to help make ends meet… I know of some working in cafes, shopping centres, pubs and in college so I think that the public need to get the full facts about the profession before making assumptions. I do believe that there is a minority that earn great incomes but don’t forget, they in turn employ people so without the fees they get they wouldn’t be able to pay employees and don’t forget that they pay tax on what they earn so really at the end of the day it’s not huge money!!

Barristers across the board should be more transparent in what and why they charge.
After years of experience with this profession I can only term them pecuniary vultures.

What do you work at PeedOff?

More importantly, what do the TD’s/Senators/Senior CS/Advisors ”work” at??

Still overpaid I contend

Pecuniary vultures.
Nice work Stray. Very nice.

Dead right on NewsTalk today they said the manager of Sligo County Council earns over €130,000 PA that’s more than Spain’s Prime minister,his only comment was that Spain’s Prime Minister shouldn’t be so Badly paid.what arrogance when private sector workers took 30%pay cuts 3to 4 year wage freezes or lost their jobs by the tens of thousands.Lord knows what his pension is.

Is 15% the going rate for this type of ”legal work”?

As I have seen a solicitor trying to charge €22,000 for a will on an average house.
Although when confronted she immediately reduced it to €7000.

What exactly do you mean by putting legal work in quotations…. if you work in a supermarket, and customers come in, you don’t expect them so say, and you charge 2% commission on the sale of all your products for this type of “business work”… ?

Also there really is no such thing as a “will” on a house… and the type of house certainly doesn’t matter…. a Will and Testament for all ownership titles on becoming deceased will usually cost around €500. Which by the way you can do yourself very easily….?

O.K. Jack
I know that you said that barristers are totally different to solicitors,
but seeing as you seem to be interested,
I will explain.

A man died.
He had an average house (value approx €200,000), a wife and 4 children.
The solicitor tried to charge the mans wife €22,000 to carry out the requests of his will.
When the lady questioned this amount, the solicitor immediately reduced the price to €7000 and gave a €15,000 discount.

€500 for a will Jack?
Our local solicitors only charge €100 for a will.
Why the large discrepancy in fees?

Sorry to pry, but what is the process of making out my own will, as I’ll probably go this route,
is it free?

@Harry: The explanation I was looking for was on why use use quotation marks around legal work, not on how you dealt with your solicitor.

Also why a discrepancy in fees? Well why should anyone ever go out and by as Ferrari for €200,000 why you can go out and by a Skoda for €30,000…. they are both modes of transport. As you are in business as you said, this should be obvious, the principles of economics apply to all professions. If you provide a quality service you charge a higher price. You could go out and get a Will done by your butcher for a tenner, but no guarantee it will ever hold up…. come on these things are obvious business matters, not legal ones…

Also what you are talking about is the execution of a Will not the making of it, you can put anyone in charge of that, if you want your solicitor to do it, then they are going to charge a fees, yours seems to be doing this on a percentage basis. If this is the method you choose, that’s the fees you pay.

As for making out a Will, unless you are going to charge yourself a fee, then yes it’s free… in the same way that if you make your dinner at home, you don’t charge yourself for it…. but then again, going to a restaurant you pay, maybe better than your own cooking, may not be… all depends on the quality of the establishment, ergo higher prices for better quality. Back to economics again.

But if you want to do it yourself, I say go for it, its not all that hard, but no I will not be telling you how, for several reasons, one is that you seem to have one already in place, secondly is that I wouldn’t advise on legal matters anonymously over the internet, and thirdly, I paid a great deal of money and spent a long time studying in great depth to earn my law degree, I don’t see why when you degrade the profession that you should benefit from our efforts, free of charge. If I go into a supermarket and don’t like the prices they charge I can’t just take a few stuff off the counter and ask for them free of charge.

Thanks Jack.
I didn’t realise that I could so much of this legal work myself.

As a friend Jack, can I recommend that you take a short course in customer relations as like many other people in your profession, you come across quite arrogant and unduly aloof.
With an attitude of, ”I got myself an education and you must make a job for me”.
Or ”what would you ever do without me” as you eluded to with your heart surgeon analogy.
You may find that, that type of smug attitude is holding you back

Sorry Typo.
could do so much of this legal work myself.

Seems you didn’t answer the basic question here either…. I really hope you’re not in the service industry, or any industry that requires questions to be answered. Maybe you should have spent a little more time on that “customer relations” course you advocate.

I have never taken a course in public relations Tobias.
However I have been in business all my life, I enjoy what I do and have done quite well for myself in spite of not being a grade A student.
I have never had to rely on a qualification to get on in business.

Ha, well that much is obvious. I think if you did take a course you should definitely get your money back. Also you must have been a very productive toddler if you’ve been in business since you were born. And you can’t say you never had to rely on qualifications, if you have did not have any qualifications to begin with.

Hi Felix.
I’m am glad to say that I have personally never hired a barrister (and hopefully will never need the services of one) However I would like to clarify that I have had first hand experience of their services and more importantly the fees that they charge which in all cases were unquestioned.

Harry I can just point out how many people disagree with your “view point” , you can see by the red : green thumb ratio next to your comments. It seems people don’t believe, nor agree with you, so you should let go of this bias you hold.

If you have never hired a barrister how is it that you have first hand experience of their services and fees?

Frankly it seems you are completely unqualified to comment on the profession at any level.

Even if you have used the services of a barrister – does your experience represent the profession as a whole? Of course it doesn’t.

And the rest… €50 would be cheap I’d say!!

its a perfectly capitalist system – the top 10% of barristers are multi millionaires. the bottom 10% are no longer barristers cos they can’t afford to live on what they make.

their fees are based on getting maybe on average 1 days work per week – 3k per day – 150k per year – very rough numbers. thats a lot of money but its not crazy in my mind. the problem is where they get state work or work from the big corporates and then all of a sudden they’re actually working 5 days a week and most likely the weekends too!

3k per day – 15k per week – all of a sudden its 750k per year – which is crazy money – no matter how good they are at what they do!

So from what you are saying it seems to be a money racket more than anything.

How can we trust these schiesters??

That is not racketeering – That’s capitalism.

Are you suggesting that barristers are part of organised crime because they charge for their services?

On that basis you believe all successful businesses in Ireland are corrupt.

Have you ever heard of defamation?

Have you heard of
16 year €300 Million farcical, taxpayer funded tribunals.
Please tell me your opinion on these tribunals Tobias?

Would you classify businesses that base their success on soft state money and over runs as being truly successful Tobias?

Besides that Tobias
There are plenty of good Irish businesses being destroyed on a daily basis by our inept government and their ridiculous rates and fees.
Whilst at the same time they pay out 10′s if not 100′s of millions of Euros on legal fees for farcical tribunals and to try to clean up the ”mistakes” of greedy bankers.
Jobs for the boys?
Legal gravy trains?
Such vile wastage.

You are no doubt referring to the Public Inquiry on Planning Matters and Payments (aka Mahon Tribunal)… which was established by the Oireachtas… not the judiciary. So it was political, not legal.

The cost to the taxpayer came to €97 million, which included €5 million for it’s legal team. So taxpaid legal fees actually came to €5 of 15 years, or €27,000 a month, for all legal costs.

The €300 million you refer to are third party costs which have not been paid by the tax payer and are only estimates. Also the CAB as a result have collected over €50 million in Revenue from information received…. with more to come, Jackson Way being an example.

Not only that but corruption was found, prison sentences given and justice seen. So the one instance you sight, you are very ill informed on, and you fail to see that it was a political inquiry, not a legal one, and the legal fees were recovered ten times over by the assets reclaimed….

Do you favour government corruption and therefore disagree with spending a representatively small proportion of money on seeking justice…. my how petty the uninformed are.

There you go again Tobias.
Might I suggest you take another look at things without your legal blinkers on and please stop getting personal with your learning disability jibes and such like.
Surely as a professional that is supposed to deal with people on a regular basis, you don’t get away with saying those type of things to people.
Or can people in your line of work say what they like to people unchecked?

Ha, nothing to say on the facts. No surprise there. Obviously the truth doesn’t gel well with you so you go off on another tangent. You should be a politician.

Or better still.
A Barrister.

You don’t know the difference between fact and opinion – you better stick to the dole and being bigoted.

Dole?
Please explain why you say that Tobias?

I’m not on the dole Tobias.

Do you have a go at your clients who through their misfortune have to accept social welfare?

Does this mean that you say no to free legal aid work Tobias?

“Explain”? … want information hand outs as well as state ones now?

No wonder “business” isn’t good if you’re working for free all the time. Still it’s nice that you are looking out for those who don’t have work at the moment.

Well unless they are in the legal profession that is, in which case you’d probably like them to burned at the stake or some other form of bigot ceremony.

Sorry Tobias

Please restate your 3 comments above as it is unclear what you are trying to say.

I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.

Goodnight Tobias.

No.

@George: absolutely dreadful, we should get trained monkeys instead, much cheaper!!

But actually if you have 8 years of college education behind you, 3 years of unpaid training, and at least 12 years experience before you can even think about becoming a senior Councillor, yeah you’d definitely go on minimum wage to flight claims for the government.

After these ”fine scholars” spending 12 years getting ”educated” just to be another useless burden on the state,
I think I’d rather take my chances with the monkeys Jack.

Especially for the type of half assed results that they produce and the level of the money that the are extorting from us on a daily basis.

8 years of (mainly state funded) college education and 3 years of (probably state funded) ”unpaid” training to ultimately leech of the state and proclaim ”who is going to create a job for me”

They should be ashamed of themselves.

Wasters!

Should the Irish hardworking business people/employees of Ireland be made pay more taxes just to pay for this exuberant wastage??

So that’s how it works Jack?

I spent 12 years getting ”educated” as a barrister.
”So now the world owes me a living” and ”the world must create a job for me” ???

Do you think that the people who create the real value and wealth in an economy, create that wealth and value so that they may pay these useless, spoilt, jobsworth, pen pusher ”scholar” types for this ”extortion”??

@Harry: What on earth happened to you? Who deprived you of state fund for education that you have gotten so bitter and un-informed?

It is not state funded, as the legal system is independent of the other branches of government, the unpaid work, is exactly that, unpaid…. hence unpaid -.- …..

The result produced are what is called the law… if you don’t like the law, don’t take it up with the barristers, it’s the legislators fault. Barrister only advocate on behalf of your interests.

The only get paid when they are needed, so if you have a problem you get legal help, same as if you have a heart block, you don’t say your surgeon is extorting you… it’s a professional service… if you want to do it yourself, go ahead. No ones every been mildly successful with a McKenzie’s friend trial, but I wish you the best of luck if you ever do try.

Also, there is no “leaching” off the state… all barristers in Ireland are self-employed. I think you’ve been unemployed too long and are getting a been green behind the ears.

You seem to be making a lot of assumptions about me Jack.

I’ve been in business all my life and I pay my taxes.
And I have paid manys the solicitor ( of course only after carefully negotiating their fees to a half /third of their initial extortionate quote) because I had the opportunity to do so.

I have never required the ”services” of a barrister and may never will.

Please tell me is it fair that compensation paid to people who were allowed to be sexually abused by the state should have 15% of their rightful proceeds deducted for ”legal” fees??
With all these disgusting multiple acts of abuse throughout the country, was it necessary to charge that much to prove the obvious truth?
By the way how many of these vile offenders were put in prison by the ”fine” legal types that you defend?

@Harry: Similarly you made a lot of unfounded allegations against the legal profession, quid pro quo, don’t dish it out if you can’t take it. You may be in business all you life and pay taxes, but do you pay enough taxes, are you earning too much from your business, are you benefiting the community are the resources used in the community greater than those you’ve paid back…. these are the questions you are raising when you say the legal services get paid too much. You can zone in on one profession to say they get paid too much, it’s economically futile and irrelevant.

And if you’ve never used barrister service than why are you complaining about them, it clearly seems you have no idea of the practice or serviced provided….. solicitors are entirely different, they have no court administration, they’re document pushers, they have no legal say. Those services are not in any way a reflection of court proceedings and it is entirely erroneous to think so. I agree they get paid far too much, but it’s called capitalism, supply and demand. If you want social equality, I hear Russia is open for business.

Also do I think it’s fair that people get paid for their work…. yes. 15% for the acquisition of compensation for those who suffered under harm to them, yes, I think that is a fair price. That 15% is entirely depended on what they were able to ascertain. So if a lay person went in and charged 1% commission, but only got €1000 damages, as opposed to a trained barrister who got €500,000 and took €75,000, still leaving over €400,000 that they did not have before hand. No matter what they are better off, your argument is that by being marginally better off and not paying barrister this is fairer, even though you wouldn’t get the caliber representation needed to get those damages in the first place.

Also: few points: they weren’t “allowed” to abuse, just no one stopped them. Was it necessary to hold a full trial and hearing… yes, it’s called natural justice, fair procedure. The opposite of which is Pinochet… which is even more disgusting so you can’t have one without the other. Deal with it, it’s called justice. And how many ended up in prison again is the wrong question…. not a matter for barristers, Ireland didn’t make it a criminal offence to be punished as such… take it up with your politicians…. barristers advocate, judges, judge…. politicians enact laws….

Your anger is misplaced…. the unfairness here is with the incompetent government who didn’t bother to do anything about this or make it wrong in any instance…. the legal profession went away and got them compensation and brought them to trial for their actions. You want prison, talk to the DPP and your local TD.

”Bitter, Anger” Jack??
Please explain why you assume that I am Bitter and Angry?

Oh gah, have you really descended to this. If I say to someone…. well 15% seems a bit high, not really sure what the rationale is there, after all these were such awful and unique circumstances. – The language, punctuation, verse styling, lack of adjectives, lack of superlatives, and lacking in tone or character, all do not indicate a predisposition of bias.

However, you when writing on this topic use, statico, highly punctuated sentences, indicating pause, indicating a strengthened annunciation of what is being said, which is indicative of fervor…. can’t believe i need to explain all this. You use quotation marks to indicate sarcasm, you use a lot of superlatives and overreaching adjectives, the use of the rhetorical question indicates frustration and disbelief….. etc. etc…. oh gah, life is wasting away….

Linguistically you are pot boiling…. how this is relevant to your lack of foundation in your assertions though and having been presented with a reasoned argument instead of delineating to facts… you immediately spring to perceived bias on my part so you can write off the conclusion being presented.. If you take such matters at of the conversation you’ll find it a lot more productive and beneficial…. at the moment I feel like I’m playing chess with a pigeon, no matter how good one plays, the pigeon is just going to knock all the pieces over and fly off.

Nice display of words Jack.

The fact is that matter is that just like other so called specialists who are in bed with our government and who do ”specialist work” for our government
(eg civil contractors who run €100′s of millions over agreed quotations)
the barristers that you defend are taking the piss with their unquestioned fees.

No doubt you are highly educated Jack.
I hope it pays of for you before the state sponsored, legal, gravytrain farce dries up, as it no doubt will.

However Jack in layman’s terms the only barristers and solicitors that I have met, seemed to be sheltered types, out of touch with reality and only seemed to be in the profession for the easy money derived from soft state work and such like.

And although they get these large amounts of ”easy money” unquestioned by their bedfellows and paymasters in government,
they create very little with it,
in fact they are very bad with their money,
they become dependent on this soft free money from the state,
this is very evident in the way in which they keep coming back to the trough filled with taxpayers money.

this is all part of corruption ,its an industry they let corruption happen then they defend it in court then they spend years investigating ,on top of this they legal mob are allowed to police themselves .

I’m confused, what is it you’re looking for Mr. Markopolos. Minimum wage for all barrister paid by the people and not the state?

Well I like the sound of that… but why would anyone spend half their lives training to become a barrister (which is not an easy profession) to earn the same as what they could working in the local centra from the age of 18?

Really, you seem to just want to get rid of barristers altogether and just have courts that impose whatever sanctions they want on whoever they want based on…. well nothing more than “social pressure”?

Also, even with minimum wage and not paid by the state…. the victims would still need to pay thousands themselves, or else an even higher percentage of their winnings. The state payments mean the victims get good representation that they don’t have to pay for….. how on earth are you against that?

A little bit of advice for you Mr Elhar/Mr Cadogan/Failed Law Students.

Lose the high fees, the smugness, the smarmy arrogance, the corruption and the, ”good heavens what would you ever do without us fine scholars” attitude because it is still us ”commoners” who make your little jobs and pay your wages.
Remember you must respect your customers, even if you are a jumped up barrister.

“Failed” ? What on earth makes you think that. I’m highly successful. And yet again, you fail beyond all reason and sanity, your opinion is not logical, its based on nothing, your just making stuff up to feel better about yourself. As Jack said… pigeon. And I think on that note you really have knocked over all the chess pieces. Time to go back to your delusions and stay out of matters you really know nothing of.

”stay out of matters you really know nothing of” Tobias??

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist, to notice that the people of our country is being bled dry by these ridiculous legal gravy trains Tobias.

16 year €300 million Tribunals on taxpayers hard earned money?
Firms basically allowed to write their own payment checks?
Disgusting.

pigeon.

Ha Ha
Legal Eagle

Exactly Mick – let he who has not sinned… and all that

And on a completely separate matter, did that Northern Bank money ever turn up?

And the Anglo Irish, BOI, AIB money too?

Sorry Harry but I have yet to see you state one fact. Your opinion is not fact. And your opinion is bias, because you do not take into consideration the other point of view, ergo – bias. And yes, it is worth seeing that no one is supporting “your view”. You’re like the green party in the last election… give up.

Ha Ha
Give up?

Ha Ha?

Here Tobias I’ll give you a green Thumb so it doesn’t look that obvious that you are the only one voting for yourself.

Do you really count red thumbs/green thumbs Harry?

No but here’s another one for you anyway Tobias.
I’m all out of Gold Stars today.

Gold Stars? Explain please?

Harry…..you’ve some mouth on ya.

Sorry if I have offended anyone.

But I could not waste 10 years+ in ”education” and €10,000′s (in a lot of cases parents money) and go home to my parents and use the excuse of ”there are no jobs in a specific sector” as to the reason why I did not get on in business and life.

The boom in taxpayer funded, legal gravy trains is coming to an end very soon, because there is simply no money left to pay for these ridiculous, hoax, charades.

Find another career guys,one that is honest, one that you will like and one that you will enjoy.
People are sick of being conned and betrayed by our broken, diseased, extortionate, ”legal” system.

You seem to be advocating for the abolition of all social welfare payments there. You evidently want no money paid to anyone by the state. You also seem to want an end to all graduate institutions… on the logic of…. you couldn’t spend your time there? Also there you are suggesting you need parents if you want to be a Barrister? What about all the Barrister out there without parents or orphans…. this is all becoming highly suspect. An end to paying taxes you say – and an end to legal representation???

A-ha! We got it now, you’re an anarchist! End taxes! End justice! Everyone for themselves! Viva la capitialiste!

But on a serious note; what are these honest careers you advocate????

The failed law students are out again in force babbling and making sinister assumptions from their little cocoons.

Just to let you know, no one is paying you for your precious time in here guys.

It looks like your jumped up smugness will be putting a lot more of you on the dole.

Aren’t you lucky that there are still some of us out here working to pay your bills.

Do you have a learning disability we aren’t aware of? You ignore all the reasoned opposition put to you, to ask for you back up your ridiculous assertions and instead you just make up things that make you feel better about yourself.

You didn’t answer my question. But let me answer yours. I’m not a failed lawyer, I’m quite successful, and its not down to state handouts. I’ve never worked for the state. But I have, and often do work pro bono. Money isn’t why Im in the profession. Also, your “taxes” that you apparently “pay”, haven’t played any part in what I do, nor will they. However my work, has played a big part in what you do. And those before me mean that you can sit there with your ridiculous assumptions and ludicrious opinions and have that right to free speech. I think we shouldn’t have bothered now.

Why do you ask if I have a learning disability Tobias??
Please explain?

A child with basic maths can see that our country has been broken by the ineptitude of our government(s) and their greedy vested interests.
They are a disgrace.

…. What… are…… these ….. honest….. careers….. you …. speak….. of……???

The questions don’t get simpler than that. And for once asks for your opinion. Children can answer this one basic question you were asked…. can you?

It depends on what your perception of honesty is Tobias.

How about personal training, organic farming, landscaping, supplying accommodation, food production, guided tours, sports instructor , at whatever level you want to take it to of course and with your own twist.
Or how about bringing something new and creative to this world like the great inventors of the past have done.
Basically something that you enjoy doing for a living, something creative, something that adds to the world you live in, something where you can express your creativity and ambitions.
Something that you aspired to do when you were young.

Do you mind me asking, why you get into law Tobias?

The Honest Careers? (supposedly)

Personal training – The propagation of vanity and shallowness, pay people to seek an ideal body image.
Organic farming – Expensive vegetables that have shown no benefit over non-organic produce
Landscaping – Paying someone to look after your garden because your too busy banking?
Supplying accommodation – Landlording and being Celtic entitled, from the property boom
Food production – Cost of food is increase causing families closer to the bread line
Guided tours – Irish tourism? Getting unsuspecting foreigners to pay for the butter museum?
Sports instructor – with all the doping scandals, I don’t even want to go their.

My point is no matter what profession or career you choose there will be those who act honestly and those who act dishonestly. You can not paint everyone the same as you like to do. It is petty and small minded.

Also, why Law, because basically it’s something that I enjoy doing for a living, it is something creative, iti is something that adds to the world we all live in, where I can express my creativity and ambitions. Something that I aspired to do when I was young. – Your argument is invalid.

My my Tobias you have a dark sinister of others and what they do for a living.

Do you really think that you can bring justice to people lives with that type of outlook on the world?

Sorry typo
My my Tobias you have a dark sinister view of others and what they do for a living.

Ignoring the facts again and going right to your repertoire of pointless comments. It comes as no surprise, even when coping your logic you say its wrong. Bigot is the word.

Bigot?
Oh my.
God help your customers.

It’s your customers you should be worried about.

I’ve been in business 30 years plus and my customers are all fine thank you Tobias.

Ha, god help those “customers” of yours for the past 30 years, must have no where else to go. Suppose you have state payments to help with that monopoly. Good old gravy train business Ireland.

State payments??

And you all me a bigot?

Sorry Typo

And you call me a bigot??

Your point is?

The fact is that the celtic tiger has given “businesses” as sense of entitlement because of the property boom and good economy, that they think state payments are just going to roll in. The billions spent bailing out bankers and now business will want the same.

And why did you call me a Bigot Tobias?

Bigot?
Things are bad when you have to give yourself green thumbs Tobias.

And Ignorant?

My goodness Tobias how long did you have to go to school, to be so educated to assert that?

My what a fine scholar you are.

No wonder you ended up on the social welfare, leaching all our taxes. Maybe if you went to college we wouldn’t have to pay for your ignorance from state money.

Social welfare Tobias?

With all your legal expertise and education tell me, what makes you come to that assertion?

Do you think it’s right that we have such a high rate of unemployment and people who really just don’t apply themselves are queuing up to get million and millions and millions of euros in social welfare payments? The fact is that all these failed “business” people tried to cash in on the celtic tiger with no expertise or knowledge of what they were doing, and just expected the economy would provide for them. When is it going to end! Shameful!

Firstly the article refers to fees whixh are paid by the State – this wont have any impact on fees which are charged in a Barristers private capacity.

Secondly – why 37%? Why not 60%? Or 100% As we’re just throwing out arbitrary numbers….

Fees are high for barristers services because there is little meaningful competition in the law library. Solicitors choose their Client Counsel for them. They choose the same people again, and again, and again. There’s no incentive to compete on pricing because solicitors arent shopping around. Why not? Because they are not the ones who have to pay.

Now – if you made solicitors responsible for Barristers fees as and when they fall due…..now THAT would have a massive impact on pricing in the library. Solicitors would have to shop around because they would know that THEY have to pay fees in the next couple of weeks – rather than their clients paying fees in the next few years. Suddenly the old friends who charge a 1k for motion dont look so attractive.

Right now though there is no competitive pricing in the law library so fees don’t fall.

You never stated the facts, not once, from the above article, you just made up your own opinion.
Also Mahon Tribunal lasted 15 years, that’s fact not opinion. And the expense to the taxpayer was political and administrative, the legal fees were 5% roughly. Again fact, not your opinion.

Oh 15 years.
I don’t know how I could be so far out.

Facts Tobias?
Your going on there like a bad GP trying to impress his clients with his sophisticated babblings.

The country is in a mess and it’s partly due to extortionate ( mainly unnecessary) state legal fees/ gravy trains and a poor legal system.

How much does the state pay in legal fees per year Tobias?

Sigh. I have come to realise you’re just an idiot.

Are you sure that your in the legal profession Tobias?

What was your “business” again Harry?

If everyone is the same then why is it that you’re having a go at Barristers particularly? Your comments are directly and, quite viciously, specifically directed at Barristers – if everyone is at it why do we get such vitriol from you?

Some aspects of the legal profession offer great value. Others do not. In areas where it is not receiving value for money then they State should be paying lower fees – if the people currently doing the job won’t do it for that money plenty of Juniors who are struggling for work will.

The amounts paid out in fees by the HSE and NAMA are ridiculous – in the main those fees are going to firms like Coxes & Goodbodys though – millions and millions of euro. Again though – I dont understand why Barristers are getting it in the nck.

Criminal Legal Aid on the other hand represents extraordinary value for money to the Irish public and has been very poorly treated by the State.