Barristers begin no returns action

As of this week, they are adopting a policy of ‘no returns’―refusing to provide cover on cases ‘returned’ due to diary clashes―in line with a Criminal Bar Association (CBA) ballot in February in which 94% of members voted to withdraw their goodwill by no longer accepting return work. The CBA says the number of criminal barristers has shrunk by a quarter in the past five years and warns hundreds more criminal barristers will leave the profession because they don’t find the work financially viable.

The MoJ offered a 15% increase in advocacy fees, the minimum recommended by Sir Christopher Bellamy’s Independent Review into Criminal Legal Aid and the rise would not take place until October.

There was a backlog of more than 39,000 Crown Court cases before pandemic restrictions came into force (this has increased to about 60,000). According to the CBA, 280 trials in the last quarter of 2021 were adjourned due to shortages of barristers, and cases now take an average of 700 days to complete.

The CBA says criminal barristers earn a median £12,200 per year after expenses in their first three years, and income after expenses from legal aid fees for all specialist criminal barristers fell by 23% in a single year (2019/20-2020/21) to an average of £47,000 (see here).

CBA chair Jo Sidhu QC said: ‘Criminal barristers can no longer afford to wait and, with every passing week, increasing numbers are leaving our ranks to find alternative work that offers a viable career.

‘Without sufficient prosecutors and defenders, thousands of victims and accused will continue to face years of delay and the backlog in cases will grow ever longer.’

Meanwhile, Bar Council research published this week has uncovered a ten per cent attrition rate at the Criminal Bar during the pandemic (from 2,670 in 2019-20 to 2,400 in 2020-21).