Criminal barristers in England and Wales have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action beginning next month in protest over levels of legal aid funding.
A ballot by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) saw 94% of votes in favour of refusing to accept returns – where a barrister steps in to represent a defendant whose original barrister is unable to attend court – from 11 April.
The move is likely to add to the already substantial backlog in the crown courts, which stood at 58,350 cases in figures published last month.
The CBA described the usual acceptance of returns as “a gesture of goodwill to prop up the criminal justice system”.
After the results of the ballot – based on votes by 1,908 members, out of 2,400 criminal barristers – were published on Sunday night, the CBA’s chair, Jo Sidhu QC, and the vice-chair, Kirsty Brimelow QC, said the current government timetable brought no prospect of a new legal aid settlement until the end of September.
They said: “Through our labour and our goodwill, we have sustained a chronically underfunded criminal justice system on behalf of the public while suffering substantial reductions in our real incomes and exhausted by the hugely increased demands placed upon us, often for little or no reward.
“We have already lost too many of our colleagues who can no longer afford to maintain their commitment to criminal work and who have left our ranks out of desperation and despair. Every day we are losing more … The future viability and diversity of the criminal bar is already imperilled.”
The Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid, which was published in December, recommended a minimum increase of 15%, amounting to £35m, for advocates, which also includes solicitors advocating in the crown courts. The government’s latest reported timetable is that it will provide its response to the review this week and then hold a consultation that will run until the end of June, followed by implementation of any necessary statutory instruments by the end of September.
The CBA has expressed concerns that the minimum increase recommended by the review is insufficient and that barristers may not see any real increase in their legal aid fee income until 2024.
In a message to members, Sidhu and Brimelow said: “We will continue to engage with the Ministry of Justice to seek a fair and reasonable settlement that reflects the demands of our members. With your resounding mandate we will pursue those discussions with determination and resolve.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We are disappointed in a vote for this course of action just days before we announce our plans to create a stable and sustainable legal aid sector for the future.
“We encourage CBA members to read our proposals in full and respond to the consultation, rather than being drawn into action that will harm victims of crime.”