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The lawyers joined picket lines outside courts and condemned the Government for failing to take action to improve wages and prevent a crisis in the courts. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab described the decision by the Criminal Bar Association to go on strike as “regrettable.”
He urged them to accept the proposed 15 percent wage increase and added: “Their actions will only delay justice for victims.”
But the strikers say the public will suffer as the number of barristers specialising in criminal law will shrink if pay and conditions are not drastically improved.
Fewer advocates and fewer judges to hear cases will mean even greater delays and backlogs, they claim.
Hearings in courts across England and Wales were adjourned on Monday as the barristers staged the first 24-hour stoppage of a planned campaign of industrial action.
Two days’ strike action is expected this week with an additional day added each week for the next three weeks.
The CBA expects 1,000 cases to be affected per day of action.
Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett has warned striking barristers they risk disciplinary action for misconduct if they fail to attend court.
Ministers say the Government’s proposed pay rise would add £7,000 extra per year to a typical barrister’s income.
However, the lawyers are angry that the increase will not kick in immediately and will not apply to the tens of thousands of court cases currently backlogged.
READ MORE: Why barristers are striking over pay
Since March 2020, the number of crown court cases delayed by more than a year has rocketed by more than 340 percent, the Public Accounts Committee was told.
The current backlog is just under 60,000 cases.
Barristers who specialise in crown court cases have long complained about poor income from the legal aid system.
Many claim their wages are so low, they often return home after a day in court with less money than when they started.
Kirsty Brimelow, vice chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association, which represents barristers in England and Wales, said outside Manchester Crown Court: “We have repeatedly warned the Government that the huge decline in real incomes at the criminal bar poses the most serious threat to the British legal system in decades.
“We have made our case over and over again to Government but our warnings continue to fall on deaf ears.
““They have no solution to saving the criminal justice system. This is a national crisis which is of Government making and it must be dealt with as a national emergency.
“We cannot allow further attacks on our profession when we know the reality of the crumbling courts and junior barristers, who walked away long before this action.
“We take this action in the name of citizens of this country because it is their justice system that we are determined to protect. We will not sit idly by and watch its destruction.”
She added: “We are doing what we have been trained to do, which is to fight for justice.”
Speaking outside Bristol Crown Court, Kannan Siva said more than one in four barristers have been “driven out of the jobs they loved because they simply can’t afford to stay”.
He said: “For junior criminal barristers to be paid below minimum wage, a median income of just £12,200 a year, is not only scandalous but it will choke off the supply of the next generation of advocates – that pool of advocates that will help society and become our future judges.
“And it means that victims and defendants will suffer years and years of waiting to get justice in court.”
Barrister Lucie Wibberley joined 50 colleagues picketing the Old Bailey on Monday. She said: “We’re here to protest against the unacceptable pay and working conditions those working in the justice system are currently facing.
“Action will take place in the hope the Government comes to the negotiating table.”
It is not believed fresh talks with the Government are currently planned.
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