Criminal barristers also protested outside Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Cardiff Crown Courts, bringing work at all six courts to a halt. The barristers are refusing to take on new cases and continuing to ‘refuse returns’―the initial protest action they began two months ago.
Addressing the wigged and gowned crowd outside the Old Bailey, Criminal Bar Association (CBA) chair Jo Sidhu QC said: ‘Last year we lost another 300 criminal barristers. Why? Because they could not do this job any more on what they were being paid and for the hours that they were toiling.
‘This must come to an end, and it will if this government is prepared to sit down with us and negotiate. We cannot continue to work like this.’
The scale of the walkouts will escalate by an extra day each week until, by late July, full ‘weeks of action’ are taking place on alternative weeks.
The CBA is asking for a 25% increase in legal aid fees and wants the government to ‘at least’ implement with immediate application to ongoing cases the minimum 15% increase recommended by Sir Christopher Bellamy’s criminal legal aid review.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, in a tweeted statement, condemned the strike as ‘regrettable… given only 43.5% of their members voted for this particular, most disruptive, option’, and urged them to ‘agree the proposed 15% pay rise which would see a typical barrister earn £7,000 more a year’.
However, the CBA has pointed out the increase, which would apply to cases beginning from October, would not reach barristers’ pockets until late 2023/2024, as fees are paid on completion of the case. Among junior barristers, median earnings are £12,200.
A total of 2,055 criminal barristers voted in a Criminal Bar Association (CBA) ballot. The results, announced last week, show 81.5% (1,675 barristers) supported days of action, of which 43.5% of the total (894 barristers) chose the most disruptive option (days of action combined with ‘no returns’ and refusing new instructions).
