Lawyer caught with drugs has best year for legal aid fees
Solicitor earns €358k after acquittal
THE lawyer caught with cocaine on a visit to Mountjoy has recorded his most lucrative year to date.
Figures provided by the Department of Justice show the publicity attached to Aonghus Mccarthy’s court appearance had no impact on his earning power.
The Dublin-based solicitor was the 14th best paid on the criminal legal aid scheme in 2018, raking in €358,471.
This is a rise of €71,011 on the €287,460 he made the previous year.
Last March, Mr Mccarthy escaped a conviction for possession of €26 worth of cocaine, weighing 0.33g, at Mountjoy prison on February 8, 2017.
A judge accepted the 33-year-old’s explanation he did not know he was carrying the drug. In a Garda interview, Mr Mccarthy said someone must have put it in his wallet.
He added: “I do not do drugs and I would not risk the entirety career.”
Judge Gerry Jones struck out the case after the solicitor donated €1,250 to the Merchant Quay drug project.
Any conviction would have seriously jeopardised Mr Mccarthy’s law career.
According to the Department of Justice, the Cork native’s practice has received €1.45million in criminal legal aid fees from the State over the past six years.
The overall figures show that in 2018, of my €59.5million was paid to lawyers on the scheme – an increase of 11% on the previous year.
The top earning barrister, Michael Bowman SC, received €656,157. That equates to an average of €12,618 per week.
Solicitors made €35million in fees – an increase of 9% on 2017.
The top paid solicitor was Michael Staines, who defended former Anglo Irish chief executive David Drumm last year. Mr Staines received €654,512.
Four other solicitors got payments in excess of €450,000.
Law Society chief Ken Murphy said: “The increase in the total amount paid under the criminal legal aid scheme is due to the increased volume of prosecutions brought and defended and not an increase in the fees paid to solicitors per case, which remain at the levels to which they were cut in 2011.
“The resilience and integrity of the criminal legal aid system is being threatened due to longstanding and continued reductions in rates.
“Severe direct and indirect cuts were imposed during the financial crisis and it is the Society’s view the 26% cut to solicitor rates is excessive and damaging to the administration of justice.
“The increased complexity in criminal law practice makes such rates uneconomical and has resulted in practitioners leaving criminal law for other disciplines.”
How much the cocaine found in Mr Mccarthy’s wallet was worth