The Government faces fresh industrial unrest next week following a decision by State solicitors to withdraw their services indefinitely in District courts and to refuse to take on new files from Monday.
The move could lead to significant disruption of the legal system, and the action is due to be extended on Monday week to include Circuit Court criminal cases unless their demands are met. State solicitors estimate that they prosecute some 50 per cent of criminal cases tried on indictment every year. However, solicitors will continue to deal with custody cases.
At issue is a long-standing dispute between State solicitors, who prosecute cases in the District and Circuit courts, and the Government over pay and conditions.
The question of some €5.7 million in arrears, which solicitors say they are owed, has led to the decision to proceed with next week's action. State solicitors say they will not offer a full service until this money is paid.
They claim the arrears mainly consist of compensation and reimbursement for money spent on costs and overheads connected with the provision of their services to the State, for example support staff, office premises and general office facilities.
The State Solicitors Association (SSA), which represents all 32 State solicitors, estimates that members with particularly heavy workloads are paying up to €3,846.00 per week to cover the cost of providing the service, a rate which it says is " neither justified nor sustainable".
A Government spokesman last night said it was aware of the planned action relating to the District Courts and said the relevant State agencies have put "contingency plans" into effect to prevent disruption. He did not say what this would involve.
"It is anticipated that the District Court system will continue to function as normal from Monday," he said. "The situation will continue to be closely monitored by the relevant State agencies."
However, while some of the cases dealt with by State solicitors may be put on adjournment in the short term, other sources have suggested that any extensive industrial action by them will inevitably lead to significant disruption of the courts.
According to SSA president, Michael Murray, who is State solicitor for Limerick, significant progress has been made on a new contract governing pay and conditions, while agreement has also been reached that the money is owed to his members. But he said the Government has so far refused to repay the €5.75 million.
"A revised draft contract was presented to the association on a virtually 'take it or leave it' basis on the 14th of March last," he told The Irish Times yesterday.
He said the contract contained a number of provisions which were unacceptable to the SSA as they constituted "a serious deterioration in our working conditions".
The "reprehensible" withholding of financial resources was being used as a "negotiating ploy" to force the membership to capitulate and abandon what they consider to be their legal rights, he said. "As this payment has not materialised, our members will only deliver legal services up and to the level appropriate to the level of payments being made," he added.
The Government spokesman said many of the main issues, including issues regarding remuneration, had been resolved in discussions with the SSA, but acknowledged that certain other issues were outstanding.
"An independent third party has been retained to assist the process of negotiating these outstanding issues," he said.