Issue 270  3rd December 2022

'Second major investment boosts fees for legal aid lawyers'

Criminal legal aid lawyers will receive the biggest boost to their pay in decades thanks to wide-ranging reforms announced by the government today (30 November 2022)...

With an extra £85 million for solicitors on top of the £43 million investment for barristers in legal aid payments, there will also be an additional £11 million for expert fees to eventually be paid each year and ensure long-term sustainability for the sector. Changes includes £16 million to raise the lowest fees payable to solicitors representing clients in police stations – the first step towards simplifying and improving fee schemes over the next three years. Currently, fixed fees do not differ between case complexity, so a lawyer spending 20 minutes on a shoplifting case and four hours on a murder trial would likely receive the same fixed fee for both jobs. The restructure will standardise payments to distinguish between these cases, paying a different lower or higher standard fee to reflect the hours of work done. By increasing the lowest fees in the system, the government will boost solicitor pay packets and overall funding for police station work will rise by 30 per cent...

In 2024, the government will also bring forward proposals for reform on a new Litigators’ Graduated Fee Scheme (LGFS) – how legal aid funding is paid to law firms - to ensure solicitors are properly paid for work carried out in a range of more complex cases in the crown court. Proposals will include a new way to calculate payments reflecting the type of offence, trial outcome and length, and the amount of evidence in each case – rather than the current system which is mainly based on the number of papers served to the prosecution, regardless of if these are ever read and how much time was involved in preparing them...

'Real-terms cut to legal aid leaves no viable future for criminal defence'

Dominic Raab has completely rejected the advice of the government’s own independent review of the crisis in the criminal justice system by imposing a real-terms cut on legal aid rates...

“Dominic Raab has made the wrong decision in not implementing the immediate 15% criminal legal aid rate rise for solicitors. The independent review recommended this a year ago as a bare minimum to prevent the criminal defence sector from collapsing,” said our president Lubna Shuja. “Instead, he is imposing a real-terms cut on fees that have been frozen since the 1990s.”

'Government running out of prison places and has to ask police for 400 cells'

The government is running out of prison places and has had to ask police for 400 cells to make sure there is enough accommodation for the prison population. Prisons minister Damian Hinds told MPs there had been an "acute and sudden increase in the prison population" in recent months and, as a result, the Operation Safeguard contingency plan had been launched for the first time since 2007. He said the government had "long anticipated" the rise due to bringing in additional measures to tackle crime, and had been "planning ahead" for it. But Mr Hinds blamed strike action by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), saying it had led to more people being held on remand... The CBA disputed the minister's claims, saying the remand prison population was already at "a decade high" of over 13,000 before they went on strike.

'Modes of address in courts and tribunals'

We are today announcing a change in the practice of how certain Judges are addressed in court. From now on, the Judges listed below should be addressed in court or tribunal hearings as ‘Judge’:... District Judges (Magistrates Courts)

The current practice is to address them as ‘Sir/Madam’ or ‘Judge’. The move away from ‘Sir or Madam’ involves modern and simple terminology, reflecting the important judicial role whilst maintaining the necessary degree of respect. We also hope this change in language will assist litigants in person involved in court and tribunal proceedings. Up to date guidance on what to call a Judge can be found on the What do I call a Judge? webpage. Any other relevant guidance will be changed as appropriate in due course. This change only involves the way in which Judges are addressed in court or tribunals. It does not affect judicial titles, which have a basis in statute, or the way in which Judges record their decisions.

'Police overwhelmed by digital forensics as 25,000 devices await checks'

Police are overwhelmed and ineffective when it comes to digital forensics - with a backlog of more than 25,000 devices waiting to be examined, inspectors have found. A report, by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), looked at how effective the police are at capturing evidence from digital devices, including smartphones and computers. It concluded that some forces are overwhelmed and do not have a clear understanding of what digital forensics are. Inspectors found that it had led to huge delays in examining electronic devices, with knock-on effects on the prosecutions of offenders and the well-being of victims.

The report can be read here.

'Crime news: further extension of fee rises to cover more cases'

Increases for litigators and advocates will automatically be applied to ongoing cases where the following both apply:

• LGFS cases with a representation order dated between 1 April 2016 and 16 September 2020 with a main hearing on or after 23 December 2022
• AGFS cases with a representation order dated between 31 December 2018 and 16 September 2020 with a main hearing on or after 23 December 2022

The increases will apply only to the graduated fee elements which were in place under the fee schemes governing the above cases. They will not include the CLAR accelerated measures which were introduced in September 2020.