Why UK Lawyers are Going on Strike

As the United Kingdom edges  closer to a recession, with inflation galloping away at nearly 12 percent, many criminal justice workers are desperate for a pay rise to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

A pay settlement of 5 percent has been agreed for the national police, to no one’s surprise. Police are a favored occupation, as they cannot take strike action by law.

But the police pay raise has only increased the discontent of those who help keep the British court system operating smoothly.  Trial court barristers, who prosecute or defend those charged with the most serious crimes in front of a judge and jury, have announced plans to strike beginning Sept. 5.

The impact is likely to have as serious an impact —if not more so—on UK criminal justice as if the police had stropped work.

At the same time, it has exposed the limitations of a system dependent on increasingly scarce taxpayer support.

Barristers in the UK operate in the higher courts, known as the Crown Courts in England and Wales, and in the Civil Courts where litigation is non criminal. In addition to their trial duties, they work behind the scenes researching the law and preparing evidence and arguments for the leading counsel.

All barristers go through a very demanding process of professional training following their university law degree and usually specialize in a particular field of legal practice. This takes a minimum of five years post graduate study.

They do not begin to earn a salary until they are admitted to a law practice.

Attrition rates are high.  The starting annual pay for newly appointed criminal barristers is around £20,000  (US$23,395 at current rates). While the top 2 percent may eventually earn enough to make them millionaires, for a significant number, it can take as long as five years just to achieve salary levels that place them above poverty.

At the heart of the problem are government cuts to the publicly funded legal aid system.

This is a process whereby lawyers receive a scale of fees to aide them in assisting offenders gain access to legal representation. The cuts have severely affected the salaries of those juniors who rely heavily on the legal aid system to make a reasonable living.

Criminal trial barristers have in fact been awarded a pay rise of 15 percent – amounting to an increase of approximately  £7,000 (US $8,188) from the end of September. But there are fears that this will only apply to new trial cases going forward,  and will not  be considered for cases already in the system.

Clogged Courts

Already the dispute has seen barristers walking out of work with the support of the Criminal Bar Association, even as some 6,000 new cases have been added to an already clogged system.

Minister of Justice Dominic Raab is  confronting a  backlog of over 58,000 cases in the Crown Courts, and he is facing increasing pressures over the time it takes for cases to be tried. It can take  up to two years  or more following the arrest and charging of offenders.

A House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report into reducing backlogs in criminal cases in 2021 reported the following:

As waiting times increase, so does the probability that a case collapses as victims withdraw from the process. Rape and serious sexual offences survivors are at the sharp edge of this trend, as these cases are more likely to progress to jury trials, which require more space and are more prone to delays.

There are real concerns that the Ministry of Justice ambition to support victims is being frustrated by these delays and that victims’ confidence in the criminal justice system is being eroded.

It is only three months since Minister  Raab announced plans to put victims at the front and center of criminal justice reform. The Ministry of Justice  had secured funding from the Treasury to reduce the backlog to 53,000 cases by March 2025.

Acknowledging that this was only a modest beginning, the Commons report said the “systemic challenges” deriving from the shortage of judges, legal professionals and local staff. to support criminal courts needed to be addressed.

“We also have significant concerns about the ability of the rest of the criminal justice system to respond to more cases flowing through the courts, particularly in the prison service,” the report warned.

Dysfunctional Justice

But the threat of industrial action will make it much harder to fix the system’s dysfunctions.

Raab has angrily accused barristers of holding the justice system to ransom. Nevertheless, the ministry has sat on its hands for far too long.

“The only ones holding  justice to ransom are those who have failed to fund a functioning justice system,” said London Victims of Crime Commissioner Claire Waxman in a stiff rebuttal.

Sher warned that UK justice will grind to a halt with many thousands more victims being affected.

While the National Police Chiefs Council has been very quiet over this dispute, there is bound to be considerable unease among police officers, who are already under considerable pressure  for failing victims, particularly in sexual offenses and burglary investigations.

A court slowdown will make things worse. Police will in effect be dealing directly with victims as case handlers – not the trials lawyers – and they will feel the brunt of victims’ frustrations if the dispute continues.

Of course, barristers know this.

Their decision to strike will do nothing to alleviate the problems, but will put pressure on the Ministry of Justice to resolve the pay issue in their favor.

Their threat to walk out may be perceived as cynical. But desperate times call for desperate measures and, with the courts grinding to a halt,  the minister will need to act quickly.

The only winners in this will be the criminals, who can expect to see cases continuing to collapse, as victims give up on ever hoping to achieve justice.

Gareth Bryon is a former Detective Chief Superintendent who worked as a senior officer in the South Wales Police and the British Transport Police, where he led major crime investigation and forensic science services for over 30 years.