“We have to act. We are the only ones that can make this government sit up and listen. They will try to rely on our good nature and the criticism that will come to us for stopping working. We work for nothing all the time.” – Miranda Moore QC, on why barristers are refusing criminal legal aid cases.
Criminal barristers in England and Wales have voted to stage mass walkouts and refuse new publicly funded cases, in protest against cuts and changes to the Legal Aid regime. Read news coverage here.
Legal Aid and the challenges faced by the next generation of social welfare lawyers are topical issues. Join us on 20th April as we discuss these themes at the future of free access to justice: find out more and book your tickets here.
Why are barristers on strike?
Speaking on Sky News, Miranda Moore QC explains it well.
“We’re having a new system of being paid, what is called ‘graduated fees’, being thrust upon us, as of 1st April. We wanted change to improve things under the old system, but the new system, which is said to be cost neutral will make it so that many barristers will face a 30% cut in their income. The Government should be paying us for the work that we do to make the criminal justice system work. It isn’t, we can’t take it any more, and this is a system that is crumbling. Therefore, we don’t want to, and we tried not to, but we are going to take action.
At moment, we’re complaining about cuts to legal aid. This isn’t prosecution fees, this isn’t money that people pay us privately, this is legally funded work for those most vulnerable in our society.
We have to act. We are the only ones that can make this government sit up and listen. They will try to rely on our good nature and the criticism that will come to us for stopping working. We work for nothing all the time.
I’m head of a chambers which is predominantly criminal working. We have young barristers leading the profession; bright, clever, committed young barristers, because they can’t afford to have a family. I’m relatively lucky, I’ve been doing this job for 35 years, I had my children early and I was able to afford to carry on working and have them. Young barristers now cannot.”
Legal Aid and the challenges faced by the next generation of social welfare lawyers are topical issues. Join us on 20th April as we discuss these themes at the future of free access to justice: find out more and book your tickets here.
