Practitioner payment details from legal aid for 2014-15 published

The Legal Services Agency Northern Ireland (the Agency) was established by the Minister of Justice on 1 April 2015 upon the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission (the Commission). The Agency today published details of payments made by the former Commission to the 100 solicitor practices and barristers receiving the highest payments from legal aid in Northern Ireland during the financial year 2014-2015 (1 April – 31 March).

The former Commission routinely published this information on an annual basis as part of its commitment to the principles of openness and transparency in its stewardship of public funds.  The Agency shares this commitment to transparency in accounting for the significant sums of public money paid out of the legal aid fund.

The information provided includes the total number of Legal Aid Certificates which gave rise to the payments together with details of the gross average payments (including disbursements and VAT) and net average payments (excluding disbursements and VAT).

The Agency acknowledges the continued co-operation of the Law Society and the Bar Council in the publication of this information.

The amounts paid to each barrister and solicitor practice listed may represent payments for work undertaken across a number of years and for a variety of cases.  Due to the timing of some payments, barristers may not have received all payments made in the financial year 2014-2015 during that year.

Details of 2014-2015 and previous year’s publications are available on the Agency’s section of the Department of Justice website.  The publication is available on the Freedom of Information page, entitled:

• Payments to practitioners

Notes to editors: 

For media enquiries, please contact the DoJ Press Office on 028 9052 6444.

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