MoJ’s “disastrous” final plans for cuts spark stand-off with defence solicitors
The criminal courts are drawing to a halt in a stand-off between defence solicitors and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) over planned fee cuts.
A day of action is due to take place nationally on Friday (7 March), with barristers and solicitors boycotting court entirely unless their case involves the young or vulnerable and cannot be moved.
The MoJ laid out its final plans for cuts last week, in its response to its consultation, Transforming Legal Aid: Next Steps.
Writing for NLJ online, Justice Gap editor and NLJ columnist Jon Robins says: “For ‘transforming’, read ‘dismantling’.
“Representative groups (with the exception of Chancery Lane) are agreed that [Justice Secretary] Chris Grayling’s announcement is a ‘disaster’ for the profession and public alike.”
The MoJ will reduce duty solicitor fees by 17% in two stages—8.75% for cases starting after 20 March, with a further reduction planned for next year.
An unlimited number of own client contracts for solicitors will be allowed, while the number of duty contracts will be reduced from 1,600 to 525 (210 of which will be in London).
Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association chair Bill Waddington says the evidence produced by the consultation had been “totally ignored”, and that the result would be mass redundancies and a reduced service to those subject to police investigation or charged with a criminal offence.
Barristers’ Crown court fees will be reduced by 6%, with very high cost cases fees cut by 30%, and a new version of the Advocates Graduated Fees Scheme (AGFS) will be introduced—this will be reviewed after one year.
Nicholas Lavender QC, chair of the Bar Council, said the MoJ’s response “confirmed our worst fears”.
Even before the current proposals, fees for Crown Court cases had been “savagely” cut by 21% on average since 2007 (a 37% cut in real terms), he said.
The MoJ said it would review ways to minimise the number of pre-trial hearings which require advocates to attend court, and said “more appropriate” fees would be paid in future to defence lawyers where a case is dropped, as well as interim payments during long trials.
