HUNDREDS of barristers demonstrated outside courts in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, London and Manchester on Tuesday, on the second day of their indefinite strike.
Over 100 were outside the Supreme Court, Parliament Square, in London.
Kristy Brimelow QC told News Line: ‘For the first three years of practice, junior criminal barristers who are in courts are being paid a median income of £12,200 per annum.
‘Barristers, senior and junior, including QCs are going to courts for hearings where they are being paid £126 and this is before expenses and taxes.
‘All barristers are self-employed so sick pay, pension, and holiday pay all has to come out of those £126 pounds.
Anisha Kiri was angry with now replaced Justice Secretary Dominic Raab. She said: ‘As visible as the state of things are Mr. Dominic Raab, not a lot seems to be very clear to you.
‘I was called to the bar in 2020.
‘My parents fled the war-torn country of Sri Lanka, where there was a genocide and no justice.
‘They came to the UK in the hope of a better life.
‘And therefore, the UK justice system is something I really treasure, and it is the reason why I became a barrister.
‘I’ve worked really hard to get here and I needed my family’s support.
‘I never imagined that after I became a barrister, I would continue to need my family’s support and be working even harder.
‘The stresses of this job go so much deeper than the job description.
‘Mr. Raab, I am required to travel all over the UK to various different hearings, and the travelling I completely understand, but in many cases junior barristers are paying more for their travel than their actual fee for the case.
‘My earnings are so stagnant.
‘Each hearing requires a significant amount of preparation.
‘Our clients are facing serious charges, with their lives depending on it needing a barrister who knows the ins and outs of their case.
‘Our clients place their utter faith in us, so we must represent them the best we can.
‘I understand the need for preparation which I am more than willing to work towards, however, not being compensated for this preparation is illogical.
‘I have personal experience, I know many others who spend evenings, weekends, hours on end preparing cases that don’t go ahead.
‘We’re not arguing for compensation for preparation, however, fighting for an increase in Legal Aid fees to alleviate this additional workload.’
Mark Watson added that: ‘Barristers are used to a lot of things.
‘Not being able to drink tap water in the court buildings.
‘Not being able to walk outside of a court building for fear of that part of the building falling on you.
‘Not being sure that raw sewage won’t flow down from the ceiling in court.
‘But, that apparently is normal and is the state of the criminal justice system.
‘It is also the ability of my extraordinary colleagues at the bar, solicitors and court staff to put up with what no one should ever have to.
‘No more!
‘Talk to any other barrister here, they’ll have even more examples for you.
‘We’ve been putting up with this for years but something I’ve never had to do, something my supervisor told me off for is something I’m about to do.
‘I’ve got to make the same argument twice.
‘In front of the Royal Courts of Justice.
‘Some time ago I gave some advice to Dominic Raab. I advised him to talk to us.
‘I argued for the work of the criminal bar and my colleagues.
‘The problem with one lawyer giving another lawyer advice is quite often that advice falls on deaf ears.
‘I can only hope that the new Lord Chancellor has better hearing than the last time.
‘Rather than rely on the same points I made last time. I’m going to rely on the Ministry of Justice.
‘They made my point very effectively.
‘Now I’m going to make myself very unpopular with a lot of my colleagues here.
‘A lot of them say that the Ministry of Justice doesn’t value us.
‘Well, I’m sorry to say, I think they do.
‘In fact, they put a figure on it.
‘An advert came out from the higher court advocates four days ago for the Ministry of Justice to join the Public Defender Service.
‘You know that service, the one that was so successful that no one’s even heard of it.
‘Not even James Cartlidge when he suggested the Crown Defence Service or whatever it was in his Telegraph piece.
‘They advertised a salary between 50,063 and a half thousand pounds.
‘He’d been qualified for five years.
‘The average pay for a criminal barrister at the Independent bar is £47,000.
‘That’s after expenses, but before tax.
‘So cut that a bit more.
‘That figure tells you everything you need to know.
‘What the advert doesn’t include is paid holiday, sick-pay, pension and I’m sure a whole host of other benefits.
‘If the MOJ gave each independent barrister the £7,000 they claimed they were about to.
‘The disparity is still there between their advert and what we would be paid.It’s in the 10s of thousands.
‘Whoever you are the new Chancellor coming must honour the commitment and all of these people up and down the country that makes the criminal justice system work.
‘Talk to us, please.
‘Any less than even a conversation is an insult.
‘And we would like to talk to you.
‘Thank you.’
Liam Walker QC told News Line as they assembled: ‘I’m here to demonstrate on behalf of the barristers who have been forced to strike due to the government’s resistance to honour the basic recommendation of the Criminal Legal Aid Review.
‘Successive governments have cut the criminal justice system to the point where it’s no longer fit for purpose.
‘The rhetoric coming from the government is they have offered a 15% rise in barristers’ fees. That is incorrect.
‘They have refused to implement the basic minimum recommended by the report authored by Lord Bellamy.
‘The issue isn’t about barristers’ fees, it’s about the rule of law – how the government have undermined it and how their refusal to implement the recommendations of their own report has broken the criminal justice system.
‘Our action is now indefinite because it’s no longer sustainable for people to do legal aid work.
‘Barristers have been leaving year on year in their droves and duty solicitor numbers have halved over the past six years.
‘The average salary junior barristers are earning is £13,000 and that’s not a sustainable way to live.’
Junior criminal barrister Natalie Bird said: ‘This week is the week when our action becomes indefinite.
‘We’ve been taking action since April. But now we are not turning up in court until the government meets with the Criminal Bar Association leaders to discuss sensibly and properly how and when they are going to implement the recommendations of their own report by Sir Christopher Bellamy.
‘The government have said they will give us 15% on cases starting from September but there is a backlog of cases years old.
‘Barristers won’t get the benefit for years to come.
‘We want the 15% immediately and ultimately a 25% increase in legal aid to address the 28% decrease in real income over the last two decades.
