Barristers vote to strike over funding row with Government
IT MEANS CASES ARE LIKELY TO BE DELAYED
BARRISTERS at Derby Crown Court have voted to go on strike from next week amid an ongoing funding row with the Government.
The legal professionals will walk out on Monday and Tuesday next week as they begin their days of action. It is intended to last for four weeks, increasing by one day each week until a five-day strike from Monday, July 18 to Friday, July 22. It means that cases at which barristers are required are likely to have to be postponed, including crown court trials.
The move comes at a time of significant backlogs across the court system in England and Wales.
Explaining the action, Derbybased barrister Jeanette Stevenson, of Great James Street Chambers, said: “Barristers are rarely considered as one of the professions in need of a pay rise. However, the public perception of life as a criminal barrister is very different to its reality.
“The idea of ‘fat cat lawyers’ may be applicable to those at the commercial Bar, but for those of us representing clients in the criminal courts, our fees would be a surprise to most, with junior barristers, in their first three years of practice, earning a median income of only £12,200, which is far below minimum wage.
“There are many aspects of our work that are unpaid, unrealistic expectations for case preparation and court attendances paying only £91 per day which, once you have paid Chambers’ fees, travel and taken into account that you will not be paid until the conclusion of a case – sometimes two-to-three years on – it is not reflective of such a skilled profession and the responsibility that we, as barristers, hold.
“Throughout the past year, the Criminal Bar Association has engaged with the Ministry of Justice, making repeated efforts to persuade the Government to increase barristers’ fees by a minimum of 15%.
“The CBA maintains that a 15% increase is, of itself, inadequate to secure the long-term viability of the Criminal Bar and will not arrest the exodus of barristers from specialist criminal work.
“That is why the CBA has asked that fees be increased by 25% and a number of other reforms should be implemented as soon as possible. A high inflation rate (now likely to reach 11%) means that a 15% rise in fees will be more than extinguished by the time we receive it.
“Barristers have already suffered an average decrease in our real earnings of 28% since 2006 and during a single year of the pandemic, our average earnings from legal aid collapsed by 23%.
“In that same year, the Ministry of Justice saved £240 million in unspent AGFS (Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme) monies which has never been reinvested to help us. Eighty-three per cent of barristers were forced into personal debt with no Government support to mitigate the loss of income.
“We have lost a quarter of our specialist criminal barristers over the last five years, with 300 walking away last year alone.
“The Legal Aid system is at the heart of the Criminal Justice System, ensuring that all defendants receive competent and fair representation.
“The loss of criminal barristers is reflected in the current court backlogs which show that many prosecutions are being delayed because of a shortage of representatives.
“In some cases, defendants are being held on remand for years whilst awaiting trial. This is unfair to victims, those accused and witnesses who deserve swift access to justice. The continued loss of legal aid lawyers will ultimately limit access to justice to only those who can afford it.
“This may irrevocably damage the reputation of our courts and will inevitably risk individual miscarriages of justice with the most vulnerable members of society suffering as a consequence.
“It could be you wrongly accused of a crime tomorrow… could you afford to pay a legal team thousands/tens of thousands of pounds to privately defend you? If not, it would be you relying on the specialisms of your legally aided barrister to argue your case in court. We are the forgotten front line workers of the justice system and the future of our profession is in jeopardy.”
In April, members of the CBA started a “no returns policy”, which is where they step in and pick up court hearings for colleagues whose cases are overrunning and which is seen as a gesture of goodwill to help the justice system.
The organisation said it has made “repeated efforts” to persuade the Government to honour the recommendations of a Criminal Legal Aid Review to increase their fees by 15% immediately, but have been disappointed.
Latest figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service show there were 358,076 outstanding cases at magistrates’ courts, and 58,271 outstanding cases at crown courts, as of April 2022.
Barristers have already suffered an average decrease in real earnings of 28% since 2006.
Jeanette Stevenson