Top barristers won't accept pay decrease

HarryD

"The Bar Council is warning the government that top barristers may not want to work for Tribunals of Inquiry under a revised pay structure. The Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, has announced new reduced payment scheme to take effect from September. It will mean a reduction of some 60% in the current rates paid to lawyers, who can earn €2,250 to €2,500 a day under the present system. Chairman of the Bar Council, Conor Maguire, has said that high levels of pay were needed to secure excellent service from the country's top barristers. He cited the Morris tribunal as an example of the success of the old system. Mr Maguire said that this excellence cannot be guaranteed if the pay levels drop."

what a loada ballix !
These f00kers cost the state a fortune as it is.
The cost of tribunals is astronomical

Kell

The way I see it, they dont have a choice. If they want to make sure that they have their work diaries filled for the forseeable future, then they will have to accept the reduced rates or go find work elsewhere.

If the decision is revoked, then I think every PAYE worked in the country should strike until we get value for money in health and social services, because we're obviously getting value for money dragging peoples dirty laundry through the courts.

K-

Sleipnir

Fine, go away then. I'm sure they're are plenty of others who want to get into the tribunal free-for-all.

Some of the barristers have become multi-millionaires just from their 'work' at the tribunals.
Even more laughable is them sitting there earning thousands while the defendants cross-examine EACH OTHER! How ridiculous is that!?!?!?

Villain

The minister has created this mess, he allowed a major pay rise last year and now he's taking it back, which is obviously going to piss them off, what was he thinking when he gave them the rise???

As for the barristors, I'm sure they will come around, hard to see them all refusing to go to the tribunals.

Gizzard

greedy scumbag barristers, they are a disgrace to this country 2500 a day ffs

leeroybrown

While the barristers won't like taking a pay cut and will probably put up a lot of opposition (especialkly if they get a sniff that the Government will back down), ultimately you define a 'top barrister' as someone who works major cases/tribunals and gets very well paid. Both of these will still be true after the pay reduction.

Whoever replaces Ronan Keane as Chief Justice will (only) get around €220,000 per year. The taoiseach earns approximately the same sum. I think the barristers can be content with can still amount to a higher pay cheque per annum.

Sherlock

I heard that guy from the bar council being interviewed by Rachel English on RTE the other evening and he kept making the point that 2,500 a day wasn't a huge amount of money if you looked at what heads of big business/banks were earning. I kept waiting for her to ask why should tribunal solicitor pay be linked to someone running a company with maybe a few thousand employees but she just let him away with it.

Interesting that Ken Murphy says that tribunals were bad for the law industry as it gave the public the impression that solicitors were on big salaries when actually only a small number were.That should mean the government won't have much trouble finding solicitors for the tribunal.

Sparks

Originally posted by Gizzard
greedy scumbag barristers, they are a disgrace to this country 2500 a day ffs

Initially, don't forget, the 2500 per diem was decided on based on the usual barrister's fee, which is that high because they're paid for the time they spend in court only - and that might only be a day or two a week on average.
The Tribunals are just different and it wasn't appreciated at the time how long they would have to run for, that's what's causing the enormous costs.

chill

Originally posted by Sleipnir
Fine, go away then. I'm sure they're are plenty of others who want to get into the tribunal free-for-all.

Exactly. They can P*ss off and work somewhere else. I am sure there are plenty of competent lawyers around who will work for that fat fee.

In my opinion the Gov did not go nearly far enough. They should have established powers for a 'pre' tribunal committee to sit on each ocassion and set a fixed fee for that tribunal.