Criminal barristers worry about affording to have kids, buy a house, and even drive to court on their income from legal aid fees.
Many criminal barristers work 60-hour weeks, barely taking even a day off at the weekend, for a median income of £12,200 a year. This has fallen by nearly 30% in the last two decades, causing a "mass exodus" from the profession.
Roughly 40% of junior criminal barristers quit last year, at a time when adult rape victims have to wait an average of 1,500 days for their case to get to trial, according to the Criminal Bar Association, because there aren't enough barristers or judges to defend, prosecute, and preside over trials.
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One lawyer currently on strike, 31-year-old Mira Hammad, said she's "subsidising working" by taking on inquest work because her career in criminal law sees her making a loss. On inquests, the lawyer from West Kirby, who served as a paralegal on the Hillsborough inquest, gets paid for the time spent on written work thanks to legal aid for civil cases. But in criminal cases, barristers are paid only a fixed fee of £91 for the court hearing, despite the hours, weeks or months of work that go into preparing written documents, speeches and cross-examinations.
Zara Walker, 28, said she earned more working on a bar, at New Look and as a receptionist during her time at university. Now the criminal barrister, who lives in the South West, makes a loss travelling to court appearances across the country, including in the North West. She can pay £200 for a train ticket to a five-minute hearing, leaving her feeling "deflated" by the knowledge she's out of pocket trying to represent clients.
She does family law on the side to pay rising bills and expenses, and she's considered leaving criminal law, despite only finishing her pupillage just before the covid pandemic hit. Zara said: "To be at this stage in your career, and not know what your future looks like, is scary. If nothing changes at the criminal bar, the sad fact is my future does not look like it will be at the criminal bar."
Mira said: "It's tough because you feel like you've done something really important. When you've defended somebody, it's almost in a sense a bit like being a paramedic, in that you turn up at this moment of crisis for somebody, and you feel like what you've done is really important. But at the same time, you're on the train on the way home, worrying about the money, worrying about the fact that you've made a loss that day, and how you're going to pay for things. It took so much work to get here, so much study, it's so specialist, we put all of our time and effort into doing it, and it's so undervalued."
She said the system "in essence relies on barristers to work for free if you're going to properly represent your client", because she can put in 10 hours of work over the weekend and in evenings to prepare the case. She warned: "The real concern is, the longer that lasts, people who want to do the job properly are being pushed out of the profession, and what you're going to end up with are people who can make a living out of it by not doing that preparation work, by not properly representing clients."
Criminal barristers walked out of court for three days this week, the second they've been on strike, with the number of strike days rising by one each week. They'll then continue with the action with one full week on strike, followed by a full week working, until they "get a proper dialogue with the Ministry of Justice and the government" according to Nina Grahame QC, who defends serious Crown Court cases and spoke at a protest in Liverpool on Monday, July 4.
The Criminal Bar Association is calling for a 25% rise in fees, and on June 30, the government announced it's giving criminal barristers a 15% rise. But Mira said this doesn't apply the existing backlog of 58,000 cases waiting to go to trial, and because criminal barristers are only paid when a case closes, they may not receive this income for three years. Mira said: "I can't write to United Utilities and say, 'You know what? I might be able to pay you in about two years' time'."
This delay in payment means lawyers without the financial support of family struggle to afford to stay in the profession long enough to receive the higher fees that come later in their careers. Nina said 40% of junior criminal barristers quit last year because "they can't survive, they can't look forward, they can't see any future, and they can't see any hope".
She warned this has a knock-on effect on the whole justice system, with those who may one day become a silk gown-wearing Queens Counsel (QC), and later a judge, change career before doing so. This means "disaster" for the backlog of cases, which stood at 41,000 in 2019, before the pandemic, because there's a lack of people to defend, prosecute, and preside over cases.
With plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses showing up to crumbling courts, sometimes with blocked toilets and stained walls, only to be sent home because no barrister or judge is available, cases are left pending for years with no resolution. Last year, "the recruitment of Crown Court circuit judges fell short by 10", representing a shortfall of roughly 2,000 sitting days, according to Lord Chief Justice, Lord Maldon of Essex.
Prior to the Criminal Bar Association starting its strike action, more than 1,000 trials across English and Welsh criminal courts were postponed in the year to March 2022 "because there was no prosecuting or defence advocate available to deal with the case", according to the association
Mira said it's "really heartbreaking" to tell defendants and their family, who've shown up to court, that they have to wait another six months for their case to be heard because there's a lack of lawyers, or no court space to facilitate it. The striking barristers are calling on the government to invest in the people and buildings upon which the criminal justice system is based, for the sake of everyone who relies on it to function.
Mira said: "You never know, as a member of the public, when you are going to need the criminal justice system. It may seem like it's removed from ordinary people's lives, but when you need the criminal justice system, you hope that the person representing you, and representing the other side, cares about you, cares about the case, and is doing it for the right reason. And that's what the strike is about."
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