Criminal barristers in England and Wales have voted in favour of an all-out strike next month.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have been walking out on alternate weeks as part of a dispute with the Government over jobs and pay. According to figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), more than 6,000 court hearings have been disrupted as a result of the dispute over conditions and Government-set fees for legal aid advocacy work.
Members were balloted on whether to escalate the industrial action with an indefinite, uninterrupted strike that would start on September 5. The ballot closed at midnight on Sunday and the result was announced this morning (August 22).
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CBA vice chairwoman Kirsty Brimelow QC said this was “last-resort action” over a demand for less money than it costs the Government for the courts to sit empty. She told BBC Breakfast: “The effect (of the strike) will be that the courts continue to sit empty with trials and cases not being heard. It is a last-resort action.
“The remedy is for an injection of money into the backlog of cases which currently stands at 60,000 cases, that barristers are working on that will cost the Government only £1.1 million per month. Currently, it’s costing much more for the courts to sit empty.”
Data released under freedom of information laws show that during the first 19 days of industrial action – between June 27 and August 5 – there were 6,235 court cases disrupted, including 1,415 trials, across England and Wales.
The CBA said the action was already having a “devastating impact on the ability of our crown courts to function with any semblance of normality” and that the “continuing refusal of the Justice Secretary to negotiate a fair settlement with criminal barristers comes at a very heavy price”.
Striking members say that there is a need for legal aid fees, the public fund which pays lawyers to represent people unable to afford their own legal representation, to be rapidly increased. CBA have asked for an immediate increase of 25 per cent to legal aid fees.
Criminal barristers are due to receive a 15% fee rise from the end of September, meaning they will earn £7,000 more per year. According to the CBA, the median income for junior barristers is £12,200, which is below minimum wage. Barristers' incomes have reduced in real terms by 28 per cent over the last two decades, they say.
But there has been anger that the proposed pay rise will not be made effective immediately and will only apply to new cases, not those already sitting in the backlog waiting to be dealt with by courts.
Speaking to the M.E.N last month, Nina Grahame QC said: "We are here to make it clear that the system is failing. It is failing the public, and it is failing us.
"Everybody hopes that they never have to rely on us, or the system to help them. Everybody hopes they won't be a victim of crime, and that they won't be wrongly accused or have to face justice.
"But when that does happen, people need help from properly qualified people working in a fully funded system, and that is not happening."
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