Raab vows to break barristers’ ‘near-monopoly’ over Crown Court trials
Justice secretary Dominic Raab is seeking to undermine the barristers’ strike by breaking their “near-monopoly” over crown court trials, government sources told the Daily Mail.
As the UK government faces the prospect of an all-out barristers strike from the start of next month, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is weighing up plans to expand the types of lawyers allowed to represent clients in criminal trials.
The plans could see more solicitors granted advocacy rights, that would allow a greater number of the 157,000 solicitors in England and Wales step in for barristers during criminal trials.
The MoJ could also bolster the UK’s Public Defender Service, which employs barristers on a salaried basis, with a view to having a more reliable reserve of criminal defenders.
The vast majority of criminal barristers work on a self-employed basis without the employment rights offered to salaried professionals.
“We are looking to give more solicitors higher rights of audience to broaden the work they can do, increase the number of legal executives, who often come from less privileged backgrounds, and expand the Public Defender Service,” an MoJ source told the Daily Mail.
A spokesperson for the Criminal Bar Association told Morning Wire that he would be curious to see the cost of building a full-cadre of salaried barristers.
He explained that paying salaried barristers for perks, including holidays and pensions, that are not paid out to self-employed barristers, could see a fully staffed Public Defender Service cost “north of £1bn”.
The plans come after criminal barristers voted in favour of plans to call off their ‘week on, week off’ court walkouts and run a continuous strike from 5 September onwards over legal aid fees.
Following the announcement, Dominic Raab accused barristers of “holding justice to ransom” as he claimed the strike would inflict “untold anguish” on victims of crime.
In response to justice secretary’s comments, shadow justice secretary Steve Reed accused Raab of using the barristers’ strike as a “smokescreen for the delays he and the Conservatives have caused” in criminal courts.
The shadow justice secretary also accused Raab of “holding victims and taxpayers to ransom” as he called on the government to “get round the table with barristers and solve this impasse”.
The MoJ refused to comment when approached by Morning Wire