The Gazette 1967/71

have been reviewed in 1967 but the Minister claimed that the trial period was three years and not two. The Bar, though they disagreed about the length of the trial period, operated the system for a further year. Towards the end of that year the Council recommended that fees should be on a parity with prosecution fees. The matter was then put under ' Ministerial consideration', and the consideration apparently took a further two-and- a-half years. At a meting between the Minister and a deputation from the Bar Council, the Minister informed the Council that in agreement with the Minister for Finance he would grant an increase of 25% and 3 guineas for consultation. PUBLIC MONEY If the Bar withdrew from the system then they will revert to the old system of defending criminals without charge. Prior to the introduction of legal aid criminals were always given full representation by both solicitors and barristers. At the same time the State prosecutors were being paid out of public money. It is the difference between fees paid to State counsel and those paid to defending counsel that has led to the present claim. The Bar claim that defence counsel should be paid the same fee as State counsel, and that there is no principle which justifies the defence counsel being paid less than the prosecution. In particular they point out that there is a far greater responsibility on the counsel for the defence. They also point out that the present scheme fails to include such matters as applications for bail, or the appearance of a senior counsel in the district court for the preliminary investigation. It is known that under the present scheme many people are obtaining legal aid when they have sufficient funds to pay for a defence.— Irish Times, 17 February, .1970. LEYDEN — AMSTERDAM — COLUMBIA SUMMER PROGRAMME IN AMERICAN LAW The Columbia University in the City of New York, the University of Leyden and the University of Amsterdam organise a yearly summer course in American Law since 1963. The 1970 session will be held in Leyden from June 29th to July 24th 110

if the Minister for Justice failed to make adequate revisions of the scale of fees. It was felt that under the present system the fees paid to defending counsel were unreasonable. At present senior counsel in a murder trial are paid 30 guineas on the brief and 12 guineas for every subsequent day; junior counsel are paid two-thirds of this, or if appearing without senior, then 25 guineas. In all other cases senior are paid 15 guineas and 10 guineas refresher; juniors are paid 10 guineas and seven refresher. If the judge allows it, they can receive an additional maximum of 10 guineas for advising proofs. This is a dis cretion which judges exercise differently; some only allow four guineas while others sometimes give the maximum. The fees do not make any allowance for travelling to the Circuit Courts, nor do they take into account the number of appear ances a barrister may make. One barrister said he had travelled seven times to a court in Wexford on a legal case and his fees were 10 guineas, and whatever the judge allowed for proofs. In Northern Ireland a distinction is drawn between murder and other offences. There the fees in a murder trial are between 100 and 300 guineas for senior counsel, and between 40 and 75 guineas fresher. In other cases they get between 50 and 100 guineas, and between 25 and 50 guineas refresher. In other cases they get between 50 and are paid between 25 and 35 guineas. But the English system makes even further distinctions. If a person pleads guilty to murder then senior is paid 80, while the junior gets 50 guineas if he is on his own. For a trial the fees are between 80 and 150 guineas. In other cases it is between 40 and 100 guineas. EXPERIMENTAL BASIS In the estimates for the appropriate accounts £20,000 was allowed for legal aid cases in 1967/ '68. For the following year 1968/'69 the figure dropped to £16,000. But the actual sum expended last year was only £9,289 which includes solicitors' and witnesses' fees. It is estimated that not more than £5,000 was paid to barristers. In the same year a sum of £11,934 was spent on commissions and inquiries. The figure for this year's commis sions and inquiries will inevitably be far in excess of last year's figures. The scheme began in 1965, and the scale should