Britain’s criminal barristers have warned their profession is on a “knife edge” and that government measures to help the self-employed ride out the coronavirus pandemic are “not hitting the spot” in helping the Bar.
The Bar Council, which represents barristers, warned that half of all chambers — offices shared by self-employed advocates — cannot survive without additional financial support. It added that criminal barristers were struggling with a huge drop in income because of trials being postponed due to the disease.
Caroline Goodwin QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said in a video message to barristers this week that the publicly-funded criminal bar “is literally on its knees and needs help”.
The Bar Council last week surveyed 145 chambers and found that 55 per cent could survive only three to six months without help, with 81 per cent warning that they would not last 12 months without additional financial support. Some 60 per cent of criminal chambers have already furloughed clerks or support staff.
Government measures to support the self-employed include paying 80 per cent of people’s average monthly profits. The Crown Prosecution Service and Legal Aid Agency have also announced measures to help legal aid lawyers, including speeding up their payments.
However Ms Goodwin said the measures were “not enough” and were “just not really working” for criminal barristers and pointed out that it was “disappointing” that chambers still had to pay commercial rent to landlords for offices and were unable to claim business rate relief under the government’s support scheme.
“Criminal chambers are on life support and a business rate relief and quarterly rental holiday may just tide many over this critical three months until courts can reopen,” she said.
Amanda Pinto QC, chair of the Bar Council, has also described the measures as having “little impact” on many barristers whose livelihood depends on conducting criminal trials.
The average criminal barrister earns between £26,000 and £30,000 a year but junior barristers can earn as little as £18,000 a year.
Newly qualified barristers are being particularly hard-hit by the virus. Those who began training in October 2018 are likely to be ineligible for the government’s scheme for the self-employed as they will have only started earning money in the second six months of their training — so their latest tax returns for the year ended April 5 2019 will show almost no income.
A new study by the Young Legal Aid Lawyers group showed that more than 45 per cent of its members were “extremely” or “quite” worried about job security and 80 per cent of junior barristers reported their workloads had “significantly decreased” or been “decimated”.
Audrey Cherryl Mogan, 37, barrister at Garden Court Chambers, said that she had done only two hearings since the government lockdown and two criminal trials in which she was due to appear in had been postponed. “It’s really difficult. I have gone from being in court nearly every single day to having almost nothing in my diary and little income,” she added.
In her video message, Ms Goodwin said it would be a “catastrophe” if any chambers were to fail and if barristers had to drop out of the profession so that when the crown courts reopen there would be fewer barristers able to represent defendants. She said the Bar Council was examining how best to get the profession back to work.
There are also concerns that up to half of 40 law centres — charities that generate up to 90 per cent of their income from legal aid — may run out of cash and have to close within three months. The centres offer legal advice on repossessions and employment to people who cannot afford a lawyer. Demand for their services is set to increase from people suffering job losses, evictions and family breakdowns due to the disease.
City law firms are being approached to help set up a new justice fund aimed at providing emergency support for the law centres during the crisis.
