For the second time in three weeks, private defence attorneys in Manitoba are refusing to represent legal aid clients in bail court, as of Monday.

The president of the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba hopes the resumed job action will "keep the government's feet to the fire," amid an ongoing battle over legal aid that has come to a head.

"We're not getting any respect from the government. Our concerns aren't being addressed in any reasonable fashion. We really don't see any alternative at this stage," said Gerri Wiebe.

Three weeks prior, Wiebe said 150 private bar defence lawyers, who handle the majority of legal aid cases in Manitoba, had threatened to withhold work if the government declined to meet.

That job action was suspended when Manitoba Justice agreed to sit down with them last Monday.

According to Wiebe, it was an one-way discussion because the province denied her requests to review a copy of a recent report on legal aid before the meeting.

The report, written by Allan Fineblit, a lawyer, former executive director of Legal Aid Manitoba and former CEO of the Law Society of Manitoba, was released to the public that same day, after the two sides met.

The report outlines 15 recommendations on how to address the discrepancy between the number of cases taken on by private defence lawyers and legal aid staff lawyers, and the tariffs paid to private lawyers, which haven't increased in 12 years.

The increased workload for the same level of pay prompted 150 private criminal defence lawyers to threaten to walk out for a week in January.

Fineblit recommends the legal aid management council be given authority to set the tariff as they see fit.

Now private lawyers are demanding the government releases a $1.5-million surplus in the operating budget that was previously authorized to fund a portion of increases to staff lawyer wages, in order to fund a temporary increase to the tariff as a short-term fix.

"At the end of the day, the message that we got was 'Wait, we'll do something eventually, but we won't tell you when, we won't tell you how [and] we make no guarantee that we're going to address any of your concerns,'" Wiebe said.

The lawyers' group had not notified the province or legal aid about Monday's job action.

A spokesperson for Manitoba Justice said the department chose to make the report available after new board appointments to Legal Aid Manitoba's management council were made in December.

The spokesperson said the government recognized the report represents a "fairly significant" shift in how Legal Aid Manitoba operates moving forward.

"We are optimistic that the Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba will embrace this opportunity to work with the Legal Aid Management Council to establish a new way of doing business after they have met and fully reviewed the report and its recommendations," a Manitoba Justice spokesperson said Monday morning after the job action started.

The department will continue to work with legal aid management to assist those who need legal representation, the spokesperson also said, while acknowledging the important role private lawyers play in delivering those services.

Bail court clients likely most impacted

Wiebe said she can't predict the impact job action will have on bail court hearings in Manitoba.

Legal aid's bail unit has its own publicly funded staff that work in the bail court, she said, estimating that private bar defence lawyers handle between 60 and 70 per cent of overall legal aid work.

"I suspect that they will become overwhelmed sooner rather than later," she said.

The biggest impact will likely be felt by the most vulnerable clients, who are waiting for criminal charges against them to go to court.

"The unfortunate reality is that it's the clients who are sitting in custody that are going to be impacted by this. Their ability to get a bail hearing or a timely bail hearing is likely going to be impacted," she said.

Legal Aid 'able to manage'

Fineblit now chairs Legal Aid Manitoba's management council. He said he believed Legal Aid would be able to manage in the short-term.

"Our job here is to ensure that people who need representation get it and we intend to do our job and whatever it takes, we'll get it done," he said.

Fineblit said his organization cannot negotiate what private lawyers are paid because that is set by the government.