12/04/2022
Cachella Smith
Criminal barristers in England and Wales began the open-ended industrial action this week.
There are 2,400 full-time criminal barristers, and 94.35 per cent of the 1,908 members who participated in a Criminal Bar Association (CBA) ballot voted in favour of the action last month. The action is by all criminal barristers and does not have an end date.
It will see barristers refusing to pick up hearings and other work for colleagues whose cases have overrun.
The CBA said there is no professional obligation to do this “return work” but that barristers often do it out of goodwill and to keep the justice system turning over. The CBA said there is often little or no reward for doing so.
It comes as the courts are struggling to cope with the backlog caused by the pandemic. Last month the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee criticised the MoJ’s “meagre ambition” to reduce the Crown Court case backlog by less than 8,000 by March 2025.
There is a backlog of nearly 60,000 Crown Court cases – a 20 year high of which nearly 50,000 are outstanding trials.
The government has described the industrial action as “unnecessary disruption in the courts which will only serve to delay justice for victims”.
Nigel R Edwards QC, a barrister at law firm 33 Bedford Row, who has been leading the legal team representing Anoosheh Ashoori – who was freed from detention in Iran alongside Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe last month – said on Twitter that he was “not on strike”, but added: “I just refuse to give my family time and what little energy I have left, to cover other cases that are not mine and for which I will not be paid properly.
“The good faith needed to keep a failing system going was torn up by successive governments and parties.”
The MoJ has promised barristers who carry out legal aid work the “biggest pay boost in a decade,” and agreed to increase investment in criminal legal aid by £135 million a year, including an increase in fees for criminal barristers.
A review of the system carried out by Sir Christopher Bellamy, QC, however had previously said that that sum was the “minimum necessary as the first step in nursing the system of criminal legal aid back to health after years of neglect.”
CBA members had voted for a 25 per cent increase in fees and hourly rates to become effective from today. The review had concluded that a 15 per cent increase was the minimum and the government proposed a flat 15 per cent increase for all offences from October 2022, therefore not applicable to the backlog.
Jo Sidhu QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), said: “In responding to the recommendations of the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid, Government has manifestly failed to recognise the scale of the crisis and to act with the urgency required.
“Criminal barristers can no longer afford to wait and, with every passing week, increasing numbers are leaving our ranks to find alternative work that offers a viable career.
“Without sufficient prosecutors and defenders, thousands of victims and accused will continue to face years of delay and the backlog in cases will grow ever longer. Government must act now or answer to a public that has already grown weary of excuses.”
The CBA have said that the number of specialist criminal barristers has shrunk by a quarter in the last five years, while a Bar Council survey from last October found that 25 per cent of criminal barristers intend to leave.
83 per cent of criminal barristers incurred personal debt or used savings in the pandemic, while 23 per cent of criminal barristers are working more than 60 hours per week.
Justice minister James Cartlidge said: “The crown court backlog is now falling thanks to our decisive action and the hard work of legal professionals, and as a result of our reforms the typical criminal barrister will earn nearly £7,000 extra per year.
“This is a significant pay rise and I encourage the Criminal Bar Association to work with us, rather than pursue unnecessary disruption in the courts which will only serve to delay justice for victims.”