Criminal barristers have voted to take direct action from Sunday, 1 April in response to the revised Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS), which is due to take effect on the same day.
Some 90% of 2,317 criminal barristers responding to a Criminal Bar Association (CBA) survey backed the move. Barristers will refuse to take work from 1 April and will hold days of action. They are calling on the Ministry of Justice to delay the implementation of the new scheme or suspend its operation.
The CBA describe the revised AGFS as ‘the last straw’ after fee cuts of nearly 40% in real terms since 2007. It says it faces a recruitment and retention crisis.
Angela Rafferty QC, CBA chair, said: ‘The system is desperate as are we.
‘We are informing our members today that they should consider not taking any work from April 1, the implementation date of the reforms. We will hold days of actions. We will fight to improve the justice system for us and everyone else. We announce this action today with heavy hearts.’
It has also emerged that more than a third of the Criminal Bar are planning on leaving the profession. In a recent Bar Council survey, more than a third of criminal barristers were dissatisfied with their careers and either considering alternatives or planning to leave the Criminal Bar soon—more than double the rate reported in other areas of practice. The main reasons given were poor income and work-life balance.
In a joint statement, Andrew Walker QC, Chair of the Bar (pictured), and Richard Atkins QC, Vice Chair of the Bar, gave full backing to their criminal law colleagues.
They said: ‘Legal aid across the board—including criminal legal aid—requires sufficient funding from the government.
‘There is just no alternative if we want to achieve effective, fair and efficient justice. The current level of funding is just not sufficient. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) budget has been slashed across the board in the last decade. The effects, in every area, are becoming ever clearer: courts and prisons in a deplorable state of repair, leading to unacceptable conditions; litigants struggling to deal with their own cases without legal help in the most trying of circumstances; overloaded courts and judges; increasing delays; and judicial morale at rock bottom, to name but a few.’
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'We are extremely disappointed with the position the CBA has taken today, especially given that they and other members of the bar participated fully in the design of the scheme.
‘Our reforms will reflect the actual work done in court, representing better value for the tax payer, and will replace an archaic scheme under which barristers were able to bill by pages of evidence.’
