Monday Message 16.09.24
There are over 68,000 cases which are so serious that they must be heard in the Crown Court waiting to be heard. Each case has people within it who are waiting for years to give evidence and to be able to move on with their lives. Not so long ago, most Crown court trials were dealt with within 6 months. That was a reasonable length of time for all involved in a trial to wait for their case to be heard. Today, the vast majority of cases where an accused person is on bail take years to be heard. These delays to justice have a significantly detrimental effect on traumatised people, whether they are complainants, witnesses or defendants.
We no longer have enough of our highly skilled specialist criminal barristers to meet the ever-increasing demand, or to reduce the backlog.
To be called a Barrister-at-Law people must ordinarily spend at least four years in full-time education. Firstly, obtaining a degree and then one or two post graduate diplomas. Then, in order to qualify, students must find a set of chambers or employer willing to give them twelve months in pupillage. This stage of training requires criminal barristers in sets of chambers to pay for those pupillages that chambers provide out of their own taxed income. There are fewer places than applicants. That means before anyone starts to establish themselves as a barrister there has been a minimum of five years study and student loans of over £40,000 for the courses plus the cost of five years living expenses. For many, that amount doubles making a burden of loans of £80,000 with cumulative interest before any income from practice begins to trickle in. It is a true and significant commitment to desire to be a criminal barrister. After four to five years of education, criminal barristers begin to develop experience in the Magistrates’ Court and the Crown Court. The early years of practice are another steep learning curve, with busy weeks in distant courts; fees start to come in, but, particularly in London, provide little more than enough to get by. Fees are not paid until cases are concluded. With the backlog of trials in the Crown Court, that often means waiting 12 months or more to be paid. If you prove yourself in the cut and thrust of those challenging years, growing in reputation and skill, you enter what should be the best years of practice. Statistics show that 47% of criminal barristers between 8-12 years’ experience stop doing crime. Burdened by substantial student debt, exhausted by the long hours and the stress, they transfer to other areas of law or leave the profession altogether. Why, just when barristers are instructed in the most interesting and challenging cases, are they leaving us in droves? This leaves the criminal justice system with a hole in the centre of our profession: with insufficient numbers to ensure that all cases are robustly prosecuted and defended.
Those who remain are no longer willing or able to deal with the endless trauma and sleepless nights caused by a never ending caseload representing those who have been subjected to criminal offences and those accused of them. For reasons we cannot understand, those who prosecute cases of rape are paid over £400 less per case than those who defend.
It is the criminal barristers who meet the witnesses, meet those people accused of crime and have to tell them, on the day that they thought that the nightmare of waiting would end, that there is no court time or space for their case to be heard and that they must return in a year’s time. It is we who have to deal with the devastation and desire to walk away from this broken system.
We must, at our own expense, keep our knowledge up to date and complete 12 hours of annual training. We bear the human cost of dealing with last minute and lengthy case preparation required by the Court whilst having to manage a huge number of cases, putting pressure on ourselves to complete this work to our usual high standards because we are professional and because we care. We work tirelessly to keep the system going. Representing the state, or the person accused, in cases such as terrorism, homicide, complex fraud, organised crime gangs, people trafficking, is vitally important work. During the pandemic we were described as “key workers.” That has not changed.
We have made submissions to the Treasury as to the minimum needed to invest in the people who prosecute and defend serious criminal cases every week of every year across the country. A summary of our recommendations can be found on our website.
We hear that the Government wishes to protect women and girls subjected to sexual, physical and emotional violence, to provide speedy justice for rioters. If the Government wants to meet its targets, it will need a thriving, independent criminal Bar to deliver publicly funded work because without it this creaking criminal justice system will collapse and grind to a halt.We simply want to work without having to habitually argue that our fees should include a fair reflection of the increase in interest rates, inflation, and the cost of living. The aim should be to increase rather than decrease retention and recruitment of criminal barristers. An independent pay review body whose recommendations the Government will follow would be a positive step forward.
Thanks
Our thanks go to Richard Christie KC, to Riel Karmy-Jones KC and to James Rossiter for their detailed submissions on our behalf to the Treasury. We are grateful for Richard’s tireless assistance to the CBA helping us with the most complex financial matters.
Wellbeing, Bullying and Harassment
The CBA are compiling a paper for consideration by Harriet Harman but would recommend that if any of you have specific examples of bullying and harassment that you submit your own response in addition to our response on behalf of the CBA. If anyone is affected by these issues the Bar Council recommends the use of Talk to Spot and Wellbeing at the Bar.
We are acutely aware that some members of our profession receive threats of violence and abuse from the people that they represent and death threats when they represent people who the general public take exception to. We are also aware that the stresses that we are all under can cause burn out and a desire to quit. Please be aware that we are here for you. Gerwyn Wise is the CBA representative on the Bar Council Wellbeing Group.
The Circuits all have wellbeing representatives who should be your first point of call. They are as follows:
Western Circuit -Jo Martin KC
Wales and Chester Circuit – Caroline Rees KC
Northern Circuit – Lorraine Kavanagh KC
North Eastern Circuit – Sharon Beattie KC
South Eastern Circuit – Nicola Shannon KC
Midland Circuit – Harpreet Sandhu KC
Yours,
Mary Prior KC
Chair of The Criminal Bar Association.