Issue 249  2nd July 2022

Barristers in criminal cases have gone on strike across England and Wales in a long-running dispute over pay. Eight out of 10 cases at London's Old Bailey were disrupted by the walkout, barristers outside the court said. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the strikes will "delay justice", as courts already face a backlog of 58,000 cases. Barristers have rejected a proposed 15% rise in their fees for undertaking legal aid work and will be taking action over the next four weeks. Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have said this is too low and called for a minimum 25% wage increase. Jo Sidhu QC, chair of the CBA, said they had already lost a quarter of specialist criminal barristers over the last five years, with 300 leaving last year...

Criminal barristers will receive a 15 percent fee rise from the end of September, the government has confirmed today (30 June 2022). It follows the recommendation made in an independent review of the criminal legal aid system and will see the typical criminal barrister earn £7,000 more a year.

Criminal solicitors will also receive a 15 percent increase for their work in police stations and magistrates’ and youth courts, with further multi-million-pound reforms to solicitors’ pay still under consideration.

The fee increase is being fast-tracked with the legislation required being laid in July so that legal professionals begin to see the pay rise before the end of 2022. The remaining proposals in the recent consultation on criminal legal aid will be responded to later this year, with potential further increases for solicitors and other legal professionals as part of longer-term reforms, with £20 million set aside for this work...

Criminal defence solicitors could go down the same route as colleagues at the bar and stage court walkouts over legal aid funding, the Gazette has learned. Dozens of solicitors are already demonstrating their dissatisfaction over the government’s proposed £135m reform package by refusing to take on poorly paid work, beginning with burglary cases. The scope of refusals could soon expand to assault on emergency workers, harassment and stalking.

Speaking to the Gazette outside the Old Bailey on the criminal bar’s first ‘day of action’ about what next for solicitors’ own action, London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association president Hesham Puri said some members were talking about walkouts. The Law Society and practitioner groups cannot call for solicitors to take collective action as doing so could breach competition law...

The policing inspectorate’s unprecedented decision to place the Metropolitan police into special measures followed the uncovering of a litany of new “systemic” failings in fighting crime and serving victims, with tens of thousands of crimes going unrecorded and errors in stop and search. The decision was taken by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and follows an inspection that found 14 fresh significant failings, coming on top of a flood of scandals “chilling” in their damage to public confidence.

The results of that inspection will be published soon, but can be revealed by the Guardian. They include nearly 70,000 crimes going unrecorded by the Met, Britain’s biggest force which covers most of London. Furthermore, the force was found to be failing to meet national standards, and also making errors on stop and search with the grounds for one quarter of stops not recorded, thus thwarting scrutiny of whether they were justifiable...

Punishing barristers for participating in strikes could be unlawful, the Criminal Bar Association has asserted in the latest twist to the dispute over legal aid rates. Practitioners were alarmed to discover last week that the lord chief justice had issued guidance to judges stating that all cases where there is non-attendance should be referred to the senior presiding judge’s office to consider whether to involve the Bar Standards Board.

After receiving legal advice, the CBA revealed yesterday that article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights affords a barrister observing ‘days of action’ a defence to an application for wasted costs or disciplinary action. A summary of the advice states that participating in ‘days of action’ is likely to be a form of association fully engaging article 11.1, which protects every person’s right of association, including (but not limited to) the right to join a trade union and the right to strike...

The CPS today vows to use football banning orders to those convicted of online hate crime connected to the game and prevent them from attending matches. The new orders allow the CPS to ask the courts for tougher penalties for so-called fans intent on hateful conduct. The CPS has recently spearheaded a campaign to ensure that football spectators are aware of the consequences of the disgusting behaviour by a minority of fans.

The new legal provisions will allow banning orders to be made for abuse involving racial or other hateful hostility which occurs online. Previously football banning orders could only apply to in-person offences. The additional provisions will provide prosecutors with the means to invite the courts to provide tougher sentences for hate crime alongside their asking for a sentence uplift because of the aggravated nature of a hate crime...