Legal aid lawyers threaten the Government

Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

The local court system could face some major challenges tomorrow as lawyers who provide legal aid are threatening to withdraw their service. The lawyers are upset over the failure of the Government to pay millions of dollars owed for work on legal-aid cases.

The Sunday Gleaner has confirmed that the 320 lawyers on the legal-aid list are owed more than $30 million.

The issue was brought back to the front burner last Friday by attorney-at-law Lloyd McFarlane when he announced in the Home Circuit Court that he would not be taking any more legal-aid cases because "the Government will not pay money owed to us".

Most of the lawyers who do legal-aid cases are members of the Advocates Association of Jamaica, and McFarlane said they have decided that it makes no sense to continue taking new cases.

In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, McFarlane said he was owed $2 million for legal-aid cases, and has so far been paid less than a quarter of that amount.

According to McFarlane, he has received two payments so far this year totalling $160,000.

Last year, he received three payments of $80,000 each.

"The Legal Aid Council has to be cutting and squeezing to pay lawyers," McFarlane charged.

Several other lawyers told The Sunday Gleaner that they were dissatisfied with the payment system.

According to the lawyers, it is time-consuming and strenuous to prepare the legal-aid cases and then they have to wait an unacceptably long time to be paid.

Some lawyers said that they had stopped submitting claims because "it made no sense".

Executive director of the Legal Aid Council, attorney-at-law Hugh Faulkner, on Friday confirmed the lawyers' claim that they were owed $30 million.

But Faulkner told The Sunday Gleaner that efforts were under way to address the problem.

"It is the desire of the Legal Aid Council that the matter be resolved speedily so that possible inconvenience can be mitigated," Faulkner said.

"We must place on record our thanks for the work the attorneys have done, but in all reasonableness, I cannot deny the fact that they are owed, and it places a strain on their financial situation," Faulkner said.

Other plans

Despite the arrears, Faulkner said the Ministry of Justice and the council were taking steps to increase the scale for legal-aid fees, which would mean more money for lawyers who work on these cases.

That plan, Faulkner said, has reached an advanced stage.

The Legal Aid Act came into effect in 1999 and the scale of fees which was implemented in 2000 has not increased since.

A senior lawyer is paid $60,000 for a murder case which attracts the death penalty, and $45,000 for other murder cases.

Senior lawyers are paid $40,000 for other cases, while junior lawyers are paid $30,000 each for all cases.

Lawyers are paid these fees no matter how long the trial lasts.

Legal aid is available to all defendants in criminal cases except those involving money laundering and drug offences.