20 April 2015
LSANI Publishes Details Of Payments Made To Solicitors And Barristers
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 Commission to the 100 solicitor practices and barristers receiving the highest payments from legal aid in Northern Ireland during the financial year 2013-2014 (1 April – 31 March).
The 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 remains committed to transparency in accounting for the significant sums of public money paid out of the legal aid fund.
This year the Commission expanded the information it intended to publish to include 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 2013-2014 during that year.
The information is available for download from the Agency’s website at: www.dojni.gov.uk/legalservices.
Details of previous years publications are also available on the Agency’s website at:www.dojni.gov.uk/index/legalservices/northern-ireland-legal-services-Agency-about-us/legal-services-freedom-of-information.