The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has reported progress in talks on fees for ‘cracked trials’ and ‘section 28 cases’.
In her latest message to members, CBA chair Caroline Goodwin QC said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) agreed in a meeting this week ‘to look at a range of factors which when considered will mean that a case will be paid as cracked’. A cracked trial is one that’s been listed but does not proceed, for example, where the defendant changes their plea or evidence is withdrawn. However, the trigger point for a case to be classified as ‘cracked’ has been obscured by the change in court practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goodwin said barristers can now claim their daily £480 or £520 trial hearing fee for cases listed for a s 28 hearing as soon as the hearing is completed, rather than having to wait until the whole trial concludes.
She said both changes would apply to claims from next week.
Meanwhile, the Law Society has called for immediate action to save the justice system as ‘criminal legal aid law firms continue to go under at an alarming rate’.
As of 3 June, government figures show 1,147 firms held a criminal legal aid contract, 10% less or 124 fewer than the 1,271 firms with contracts in 2019, and far fewer than the 1,861 firms in 2010.
Simon Davis, the Law Society president, said: ‘The Ministry of Justice must take action to address this extremely disturbing fall in the number of criminal legal aid law firms―a situation which is only likely to spiral in the current circumstances.
‘If the criminal defence sector collapses, the government will be forced to rebuild it via a public defence service, which would cost the taxpayer far more and is not what a proper system of justice deserves.’
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