‘The system is in crisis’: barristers make their case as strike begins
Usually one of the busiest courts in the country, the corridors of Manchester crown court were unusually quiet.
Outside, dozens of criminal law barristers gathered at the entrance in their gowns and wigs to mark the beginning of a strike across England and Wales over pay and an “unsustainable” justice system.
“The system is in crisis,” said Kirsty Brimelow QC, a criminal law barrister and the vice-chair of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), who should have been in court 7 to defend two young men on terrorism charges.
That trial was one of many in Manchester postponed because of a lack of legal representation for those in the dock. The judge in Brimelow’s case looked around the empty courtroom and told the defendants to go home and return on Wednesday, anticipating another no-show from both defence teams on Tuesday.
Junior barristers were earning just £12,200 after expenses in their first three years of practising, said Brimelow.
Recruiting young barristers to do crime work is becoming almost impossible because of the poor pay, said Andy Evans, who was supposed to be in court 11 defending a man who was being sentenced for the robbery of a cash delivery driver.
He watched a series of sports cars driving past in the drizzle and reflected on the money to be earned in other fields of law. “Look at those Porsches driving past here. They could well be driven by barristers going to the Civil Justice Centre, Manchester’s high court, doing other better-paying work: family, contract, civil, tax.
“We do this work because we are socially minded and it’s interesting, but you can’t survive on less than £13,000 a year.”
Evans’s case was adjourned in his absence, and his client was told to return next month. “I am one of those who has had to
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