Junior barristers can earn as little as £88 a day in court for a bail application and are not paid for preparation work or travel, meaning they can end up earning less than the minimum wage.
Criminal barristers have gone on strike today following a dispute over legal aid funding, as part of a walkout that could last for several days.
It comes after the publication of the long-awaited criminal legal aid review, which recommended a minimum increase in legal aid fees of 15%. Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) say that is too low and want 25%.
The Guardian reports that ‘junior barristers can earn as little as £88 a day in court for a bail application and are not paid for preparation work or travel, meaning they can end up earning less than the minimum wage’.
The CBA also says that 22% of junior criminal barristers have left since 2016.
Lawyers are refusing to take on new cases or return work, which sees them step in and pick up hearings when colleagues are on cases which are overrun.
A ballot of members resulted in 81.5% of the more than 2,000 members supporting industrial action.
Criminal Barrister Mark McDonald told Sky News that the country’s ‘criminal justice system is grinding to a halt’ due to a serious lack of government funding.
He said: “We’ve had a 40% decrease in legal aid funding over the last 10 years, we’ve reached a crisis point, where we’ve got junior barristers leaving the profession.
‘We had 300 leave the profession last year alone and we’re not getting new barristers into the profession’.
Jo Maugham, director of the Good Law Project tweeted: “Barristers working for legal aid are the last line of defence for those targeted by a State that is often racist and increasingly authoritarian. Without them, who will stand in the way when the State comes after black people or protestors?
“That’s why I support #Action4Justice.”
Criminal barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind tweeted: “Training to be a criminal barrister: 5 years. Cost of bar course: c.£13,000.
“Role: Complex, sensitive human & legal problems. Distressing material. Punishing hours.
“Responsibility: High. People may be sent to prison.
“Median annual income for juniors in first 3 years? £12,200.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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