Tusla 'dip into own pockets' for solicitor for teen unable to avail of legal aid due to strike

Holly Laher said Tusla “felt they had no other choice than to engage with us privately in respect to this, given the minister has made the system unworkable”.

A SOLICITOR HAS described how Tusla engaged her to represent a teenager in court who could not avail of criminal legal aid due to the ongoing solicitors’ strike over changes to the fee model.

Holly Laher of Ferrys Solicitors said the child and family agency “had to dip into their own pockets out of desperation” to try and have the case resolved.

She told RTÉ Radio 1′s This Week programme that the “vulnerable” 17-year-old has been in state care since the age of two and is currently before the Children’s Court with respect to a serious matter.

“[Tusla] approached us last month in relation to this, given his own desperation to try and have this matter resolved” Laher said.

Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, who introduced the new ‘flat fee’ payment model for solicitors in July, claimed last week that the courts are “operating effectively” despite the strike.

But Laher disputed this. “Tusla felt that they had no other choice than to engage with us privately in respect to this, given that the minister had made the system unworkable.”

She said the teenager is at risk of ageing out of the system if the dispute continues, adding that it was an urgent issue that needed urgent action and that there is no time for children to have the matter kept under review.

The responsibility of the lack of access to justice for that particular child lies at the foot of the minister.

In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for Tusla said: “As an agency working with children and young people in care every day, we are conscious of the impact the lack of availability of a solicitor can have on them.

“Under certain circumstances, where it is in the best interest of the child or young person, we will facilitate a solicitor where none is otherwise available to them.”

‘Fundamental misunderstanding of the system’

The new payment model for solicitors was introduced in July. It means solicitors receive a fee of €520 per legal aid client regardless of how many court appearances the case ends up consisting of or how many different charges are brought.

Solicitors are demanding that the justice minister backtrack on key elements of the model, which they say is not feasible and could leave them “working for free” on complex cases requiring many different appearances.

Laher said that there “hasn’t been meaningful engagement” with The Law Society to resolve the legal aid row, and all that’s been offered is a repackaging of the system as it currently stands.

She said that beyond the change of the fee amount, there has been no other concession given.

“From my own point of view, I think there was a fundamental misunderstanding of the system,” she said, adding that O’Callaghan was not comparing like-for-like when changing the old scheme to the new scheme.

“He’s introduced a one-size-fits-all approach to a system that has no size. There’s too many complexities to have a one-size-fits-all approach.”

She described how a €520 fee is being proposed if a solicitor has to represent a person who is charged with committing a number of offences in different jurisdictions that would require “multiple days in court” for cases “that take completely different courses”.

“It’s just not sustainable, and it’s not a workable approach.”

She said she is still in favour of reform, but that it has to be structural reform. “The minister has to deal with separate cases with distinct facts and allow different legal aid certs to issue.”