Sir Brian Leveson “carefully avoided adding to an already bitter industrial dispute” between barristers and the Ministry of Justice when he ruled on R v Crawley (Operation Cotton), according to The Justice Gap editor and NLJ columnist, Jon Robins.
The Court of Appeal, led by Sir Brian, last week overturned Southwark Crown Court’s decision to halt the multi-million pound fraud trial due to legal aid cuts leaving the defence bereft of suitably-qualified barristers. A further eight Very High Cost Cases (VHCCs) due to take place in the coming months are likely to encounter similar problems.
Robins says: “Sir Brian warned the justice secretary and the Bar to overcome their ‘impasse’—his words.
“But how? The two sides are as firmly entrenched as they were before last week's ruling. The Bar is under huge pressure. The Ministry of Justice is apparently on a recruitment drive for the Public Defender Service in the event of future 'market failures'—just like the Army’s vintage Green Goddess fire engines in the firefighters' strike 10 years ago.
"It remains to be seen to what extent the Bar has the support of solicitors over VHCCs after the Criminal Bar Association decided to pursue its own 'separate peace' with government. More seriously, the Jeffrey review last month raised fundamental questions about the long-term 'viability' of the Bar model.”
