Barristers walk out of courts in strike over pay

Barristers are striking across England and Wales in a dispute over pay and conditions.

More than 1,000 cases will be impacted on each day of the strikes, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) said.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said strikes would “only delay justice for victims” with courts already facing a backlog of 58,271 cases.

Kirsty Brimelow QC, deputy chair of the CBA, said the proposed 15% pay rise would not happen until the end of 2023.

By then, she told BBC’s Today programme earlier, it would be too late to help and would not do enough to stem the flow of junior barristers leaving the bar.

Mr Raab urged barristers “to agree the proposed 15% pay rise which would see a typical barrister earn around £7,000 more a year”.

But Ms Brimelow, speaking from the picket line outside Manchester Crown Court on Monday, told BBC Breakfast that the system had run on “good will” for a long time, including throughout the pandemic, with junior barristers working “ridiculous hours.”

She said the issue had been “caused by government, not by barristers.”

The government’s criminal legal aid system pays for both solicitors and barristers to ensure suspects who can’t afford lawyers are properly advised and represented, from their police interview through to trial.

Barristers have been rallying outside a number of high-profile courts, including the Old Bailey in London and Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Bristol Crown Courts.

Those joining picket lines have been warned they could face disciplinary proceedings for misconduct if they don’t turn up to court by the most senior judge in England and Wales, The Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett.

Junior barristers are working for a “pittance” – and sometimes for nothing at all if cases are adjourned, barrister and author Chris Daw told BBC News.

He said that the 15% pay rise proposed by the government would not “touch the sides” and will be “wiped out by inflation” by the time it comes into effect.

If nothing changes, he said strike action could go on until August “or beyond”.

The number of lawyers working in criminal justice – both barristers who appear before judges in courts and solicitors who instruct them – has declined over the last decade, as many say they cannot make a living when they take on cases funded by legal aid.

Junior criminal barrister Claire Stevenson says she finds out which court she’ll be attending the day before – and any case could include reading hundreds of pages of documents.

“It may be that you have to spend the whole night reading… to ensure that you are acting in the best interests of your client,” she tells the BBC.

Criminal barristers get paid for their preparation and the trial, as well as additional payments per day worked.

But she says lots of other unseen work means they’re not paid enough: “People think you turn up on the day of the trial good to go – you don’t.”

When she began her career a few years ago she was paid about £12,000 a year, but since then has started working in other areas of law as the money “just simply wasn’t enough to pay my bills”.

Some 40% of junior criminal barristers left the profession in one year and more than a quarter of specialist criminal barristers – around 300 – quit in the last five years, according to the CBA.

There were 567 criminal trials, including 60 sexual offence cases, unable to go ahead last year as there were no barristers to prosecute and defend them, according to Ms Brimelow.

And as of the end of April, there was a backlog of 58,271 cases, according to HM Courts and Tribunal Service.

A shortage of barristers is causing “increasing misery to victims and those accused”, as they are sometimes left waiting for years CBA chairman Jo Sidhu QC said.

He said barristers had suffered an average fall of 28% in their real earnings since 2006 and juniors in their first three years of practice earned a median income of just £12,200, which is below the minimum wage.

Mr Raab said the strikes were “regrettable” and only 43.5% of CBA members voted for the “most disruptive option”.

More than 81% of the 2,055 CBA members who cast their vote supported industrial action, and 53.4% of those also voted to refuse new cases and “return work” – stepping in and picking up court hearings for other colleagues.

The strikes are intended to span four weeks, starting with walkouts on Monday and Tuesday and increasing by one day each week until a five-day strike from Monday 18 July to Friday 22 July.

Are you a barrister on strike? If you have taken on the services of a barrister how are you affected by the strike action? Tell us by emailing: [email protected].

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