After their dispute with the Government continues, criminal barristers in England and Wales have formally started a continuous strike as of today.
The Criminal Bar Association’s (CBA) members have been striking every other week, and last week they decided to strike continuously and indefinitely.
To stop the flight of young barristers, the CBA is requesting a 25% salary increase in legal aid costs; however, the Government has refused to negotiate on its 15% offer.
The usual annual salary of criminal barristers would increase by £7,000 to £86,800 thanks to the 15% pay increase.
The Criminal Bar Association’s (CBA) members have been striking every other week, and last week they decided to strike continuously and indefinitely (Pictured: Barristers demonstrating in Parliament Square, London during a strike on July 11)
To stop the flight of young barristers, the CBA wants legal aid fees to increase by 25%. (Pictured: Barristers demonstrating outside the Old Bailey during a strike on June 27)
The radical all-out strike has been in place since last Tuesday while previously scheduled walkouts have continued.
Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of Labour and a former director of public prosecutions, has previously charged that the government has done “absolutely nothing” to settle disputes after it was discovered that Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, was away on vacation when the election results were announced.
Since June, the CBA has gone on sporadic strikes; in August, they became week-long strikes.
According to Sir Christopher Bellamy’s Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid, the median fee revenue for self-declared full-practice criminal barristers in 2020 was £79,800 before costs.
The average junior criminal lawyer makes £58,300 annually, and in their first three years of practice, according to the Criminal Bar Association, full-time criminal lawyers made an average of £12,200. However, the post-expense average salary for the industry is about between £55,900 and £63,900.
During a previous barristers strike on June 27, Jo Sidhu, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, speaks outside the Old Bailey.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured) was on holiday as the ballot result was announced
Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of Labour and a former director of public prosecutions, has previously charged that the government does “absolutely nothing” to settle disputes.
On Tuesday, protests in support of the strikes will be conducted at courts in Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, and Leeds as well as outside the UK Supreme Court in London.
According to Ministry of Justice statistics, the disagreement over the terms and government-imposed costs for legal aid advocacy work has caused more than 6,000 court sessions to be postponed.
Barristers are due to receive a 15 per cent fee rise from the end of September, earning £7,000 more a year.
But there is anger the rise will not be immediate and doesn’t apply to backlog cases.
After their dispute with the Government over remuneration grew more intense, criminal barristers in England and Wales will in fact go on a continuous strike as of today.
In his statement, Mr. Raab charged that lawyers were “holding justice to ransom.” He added, “My message to the CBA is plain. We’re raising your salary.
“Right now, your actions are only hurting victims and clogging up the court system,”
But London’s Victims’ Commissioner, Claire Waxman, asserted that only those who have refused to provide the necessary funding for a functioning court system are to blame for holding “justice to ransom.”