Criminal lawyers in England and Wales will begin a strike on legal aid rates on Monday as they warn the profession is facing an “existential crisis” due to inadequate funding.
The Association of Criminal Lawyers (CBA) said the offer of a 15% increase in fees, which was the minimum increase recommended by the review of criminal legal assistance (Clear), is insufficient after of irregular cuts and will not apply to the delay of 58,000 cases. in the courts of the crown.
He says revenue has fallen by almost 30% over the past two decades and specialist criminal lawyers get average annual income after spending £ 12,200 in the first three years of practice, which resulted in 22% of criminal lawyers minors leave from 2016.
Lawyers who took part in the strike on Monday said they are paid less than the minimum wage for court hearings when travel and hours spent preparing are taken into account, and not at all when cancellations are taken into account. audiences.
Mira Hammad, who is based in Liverpool, and was called to the bar in 2019, said: “The criminal justice system is collapsing. Cases are not moving forward because there are not enough lawyers, there is not enough. judges, there are not enough legal remedies.
“As a criminal lawyer you can’t earn enough, so I do investigative and criminal work. If I only had crime, I couldn’t make a living. It’s unsustainable for anyone involved in the system.
“The fact that there is no funding in the system means it’s also an incredibly stressful and frustrating job. They don’t pay you well and you have to constantly work within a system that is completely dysfunctional.”
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The march is the first by criminal lawyers since 2014, so far the only time they have gone on strike. This was also due to legal aid rates. CBA members supported the action to ensure fair rates in 2019, but it was suspended pending the outcome of Clar, which contained the recommendation to increase rates by 15% when it was finally released. last December.
The ABC is angry because, after the review, the government did not implement the salary increase immediately, but launched a consultation on the recommendations in March that only closed earlier this month. It wants a 25% increase to offset years of reductions in real terms.
Andrew Fitch-Holland, a Nottingham-based criminal lawyer who was called to the lawyer in 1990, said the goodwill of practitioners had been exploited.
“People are at the breaking point, I’ve seen colleagues with tears,” he said. “I know the level of personal debt that people are taking on. We’re all struggling to make ends meet and frankly we’re sick and tired of not getting paid for the work we do.”
He added: “We are not being greedy, we are not fat cats. There have been a number of brutal cuts to our funding at a time when also, over the years, job demands have increased. So not only do they pay us “We have reached an existential crisis and the criminal bar is bleeding the limbs.”
Lawyers will initially leave on Monday and Tuesday, increasing the number of strike days by one each week, culminating in a five-day strike the week beginning July 18th. There will be picket lines at the Crown Courts of London (in the Old Bailey), Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester.
They will also not accept instructions for new cases and, continuing the labor action that began on April 11, will refuse to accept returns, where they will intervene to replace the original lawyer in a court hearing to which the latter can no longer attend. The action will lead to delayed cases, aggravating the backlog crisis.
The government has described the CBA’s decision as “disappointing” and said the “unnecessary” strikes would only harm the victims. He has questioned the CBA’s mandate for action and claims a 15% increase would mean a typical criminal lawyer would earn an additional £ 7,000 a year.