As talks got under way today between the Minister for Justice and the Law Society in an effort to resolve the solicitors dispute a local judge has sharply criticized a solicitor who failed to appear in court to represent a man who is in custody. On Tuesday last week when the accused’s case was called solicitor Tony Collier did not appear.
Judge John Martin said that Mr Collier should appear at 2pm but that deadline passed with no appearance. The judge made similar calls for the solicitor to appear on the following days of the Trim Circuit Court sitting but Mr Collier did not attend. The judge has now directed the solicitor to appear in court for his client.
He sad that he found it “astounding, astonishing, not to speak of disrespectful for the solicitor to “refuse to turn up’. While he said he would not comment in any way on the dispute between the Minister and the solicitors he said that the law said that if a solicitor was withdrawing from representing a client he or she must first ask a court for permission to do so. He said that Mr Collier was more of less saying ‘I don’t care about your direction, I’m not going to comply.” Mr Collier was contacted for comment.
