THE STANDARD fees paid to barristers working for the State have been outlined by the Taoiseach following a request by a Government TD.
Labour TD Kevin Humphries asked Enda Kenny in a parliamentary question to provide the “hourly rate” paid for fees due to barristers who provide counsel at senior and junior level for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Office of the State Solicitor.
Mr Kenny said the DPP’s office, which is involved only in criminal cases, did not pay barristers an hourly rate but used a range of standard fees, which he outlined in a written response to Mr Humphries.
“Where cases are heard in the Central Criminal Court, a senior counsel will also usually be appointed,” Mr Kenny said.
“On occasion, a senior counsel may be appointed to deal with a particularly complex case in the Circuit Court. The fees paid to senior counsel are 1½ times the junior counsel rate.”
The principal categories of fees, accounting for 95 per cent of all fees paid, were brief fees, refresher fees, sentence fees and bail fees, he added.
“The current brief fee for junior counsel in the Circuit Court is €1,272. The brief fee paid to junior counsel in the Central Criminal Court is €4,225 in rape cases and €5,280 in murder cases,” Mr Kenny said.
The brief fee is payable for the first day of a trial or, if the case does not go to trial, the day the defendant pleads guilty.
It covers both the work involved in preparing the case for trial and the appearance on the day in question.
“A refresher fee is payable for the second and subsequent days of a trial.
“The current refresher fee for junior counsel in the Circuit Court is €636. The refresher fee paid to junior counsel in the Central Criminal Court is €1,157,” Mr Kenny said.
A sentence fee is paid for hearings that deal with the passing of sentence. There may be more than one such hearing in a case, with the current sentence fee for junior counsel being €274.
A bail fee is payable for hearings where the defendant applies for bail and the matter is contested. The current bail fee for junior counsel is €196.
Mr Kenny said counsel were not paid an hourly rate by the Office of the Chief State Solicitor either, “given the very varied nature and complexity of the work undertaken”.
He said measurement of counsel fees was governed by the nature and extent of the work done and the features of each particular case.
Among the factors taken into account when assessing counsel fee were the amount of time likely to have been “reasonably spent” on the work; the number of documents perused “and their importance and technicality”, as well as the place and circumstances where the work is performed.
Also involved in fee assessment were the “difficulty or novelty of the questions involved”; the responsibility involved and the performance of counsel.
