A senior Manitoba judge warns that a rising number of serious and complex criminal cases may cause "serious issues" for the legal aid system and the courts.

Disputes over what Manitoba Legal Aid now pays private defence lawyers to take cases could flood the courts with Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenges, according to Justice Glenn Joyal.

Such challenges would be based on the argument that Legal Aid's financial constraints trample an accused's right to a fair trial, suggested Joyal, the associate chief justice of Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench.

Joyal's comments form part of a recent 15-page decision dismissing a charter challenge by accused killer Mark Edward Grant, whose experienced Winnipeg defence lawyer is being paid by Legal Aid.

Grant is charged with first-degree murder in the 1984 death of Winnipeg teen Candace Derksen.

Grant alleges that his rights were breached because Legal Aid isn't paying lawyer Saul Simmonds enough to prepare for the high-profile and complicated trial.

Grant was arrested and charged in 2007 after a prolonged police investigation. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is to begin in mid-January.

Although he rejected Grant's challenge, Joyal wrote that charter challenges arising out of legal aid funding may become par for the course.

"Absent a quick and unexpected change in the economic context, provincial governments, like ours in Manitoba, will continue to ask agencies like Legal Aid to do more with less," Joyal said.

"Given the increasing number of longer and more serious and complex prosecutions now being set down with the court … it is reasonable to anticipate that the percolating issues … will be taken up by [other accused criminals]."

Joyal said Simmonds was being paid by Legal Aid at 2007 levels ($57 an hour) and not at the higher, $80-an-hour rate the agency has been paying non-staff attorneys since April 1, 2008.

Court heard Simmonds believed he would get a higher rate — and without a cap on preparation time — because of an agreement he made with the agency's former director in 2007.

That director left Manitoba Legal Aid in 2008, and Legal Aid has refused to increase Simmonds's compensation, citing a lack of jurisdiction under provincial legislation, Joyal's decision said.

The case involves "thousands of pages of documents" and more than 100 exhibits," Joyal said. DNA evidence and the use of expert witnesses also loom large in terms of trial preparation, Joyal said.

Grant argued the amount being paid to his lawyer is inadequate, and because of this, his fundamental right to a fair trial was violated.

Veteran city defence lawyers filed sworn statements with the court, stating they didn't believe they could adequately represent Grant under the same Legal Aid rates.

Grant wanted the court to officially appoint Simmonds to the case, which might have opened the door for Joyal to possibly set legal fees as he saw fit.

The Crown argued that despite the squabble over funding, Simmonds has stayed on the case since Grant's arrest. Because of that, the Crown said, the challenge was moot.

Joyal ultimately dismissed Grant's challenge, saying the issue wasn't whether he could get a competent lawyer to represent him but "solely the remuneration and the specific conditions of the retainer for a state-funded lawyer who is already on the record and continues to act."

But Joyal warned of potential for problems with Manitoba's legal aid system and how the province funds it.

"In deciding this application as I have, I have not been indifferent to what are clearly serious issues of contention respecting the adequacy of the Government of Manitoba's funding of Legal Aid and in turn, Legal Aid's capacity to properly and promptly respond to requests made by [disadvantaged] accused seeking a fair trial in particularly serious and complex prosecutions," Joyal said.