Lawyers bail on court in walkout

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This article was published 02/02/2020 (1789 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bail courts slowed to a crawl Monday, as Legal Aid lawyers struggled to keep pace amid a walkout by the province’s private defence bar.

“It’s going to be a long day,” said Gary Robinson, duty counsel supervisor for Legal Aid Manitoba, and one of five staff lawyers processing cases at the Winnipeg Law Courts building’s two bail courts. “It’s going very slow.”

The province’s roughly 150 criminal defence lawyers made good on a threat to stop representing new legal aid clients in bail court to protest pay rates that haven’t budged in 12 years.

On Monday, approximately 150 people filled the two city bail dockets, up to 75 per cent of whom would normally be represented by the private defence bar, Robinson said.

“The vast majority (appearing Monday) are not represented,” Robinson said.

“We are sympathetic to the private bar, but we have to make sure that the clients have a chance at bail and access to counsel,” he said. “If there’s no private bar here because of the job action, then we still have to make sure that everybody gets a chance before the judge.”

Complicating matters further, many legal aid clients weren’t aware of the job action until notified by their lawyers Monday, Robinson said.

“It’s challenging because the private bar actually is seeing people at the (Winnipeg) Remand Centre just to explain the situation and they are unintentionally getting in our way because we are also trying to see all these people,” he said. “So we are all tripping over each other a little bit.”

Legal Aid Manitoba contracts out most of its cases to private defence bar lawyers who are paid an $80-per-hour tariff set by provincial legislation. The pay rate hasn’t been changed or adjusted for inflation since 2008.

The Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba cancelled a bail court walkout in mid-January, after Justice Minister Cliff Cullen’s office asked for a meeting. A committee of private defence lawyers met last week and decided to put job action back on the table, saying they want the government to take immediate action on a pay raise.

Association president Gerri Wiebe appeared in bail court briefly to clarify the group’s position, telling provincial court Judge Lynn Stannard private defence bar lawyers would continue to represent existing legal aid clients on matters already before the court, but not on new charges.

Speaking later to a reporter, Wiebe said no time limit has been set for the job action.

“We are evaluating every day what the impact is and deciding from there how to go,” she said.

“I want to be clear this isn’t a situation where we are saying to the government: we are going to strike until you give us what we want. That’s not the purpose. It’s more a work-to-rule idea, where we are trying to continue to highlight the issue, keep feet to the fire, keep the issue on the forefront, and put pressure on the government to actually respond.”

A request for an interview with the justice minister was not answered by press time.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca