In his last message as chair of the Criminal Bar Association, Tony Cross QC has left the ball in solicitors’ court to ‘kill’ the threat of the government’s legal aid reforms.

Thousands of solicitors have been boycotting new legal aid work since 1 July,  when the government introduced a second 8.75% fee cut. After initially standing aside, the  criminal bar officially joined the action on 27 July by refusing to take on new work and adopting a ‘no returns’ policy.

As well as fee cuts, the practitioner groups oppose the Ministry of Justice’s plans to reduce the number of contracts for solicitors providing 24-hour cover at police stations from 1,600 to 527 from January next year.

The London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association is currently surveying its members to see if firms are willing to withdraw bids for contracts or refuse contract offers of awards. The Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association is discussing at committee level whether to conduct a similar survey.

Cross (pictured) ‘wholeheartedly’ welcomed the LCCSA’s survey. ‘You know that I have repeatedly called for the solicitors’ leadership to commence such an action,’ he said. [Two-tier contracts] is the real issue for the bar. There is one certain way of killing this scheme – this is it.’

Noting the ‘tight’ 28 August deadline for responses, Cross said: ‘I have listened very carefully to talk of solidarity, now the bar waits.’

Following a meeting of the executive committee last night, Cross said the barristers’ action would continue pending the practitioner groups’ recommendation should the lord chancellor decide next week to suspend the second fee cut, after which the executive ‘will determine whether the bar’s action should continue’.

According to the CBA’s monitoring of the action, the vast majority of cases with no legal aid orders reaching the Crown court have been in relation to preliminary hearings, and courts are setting timetables for service of case papers, for instance, in the absence of representation.

Cross said the action was ‘having an effect but not necessarily an impact’.

The impact of unrepresented defendants, if the action continued, would be seen in late September, when cases are listed for preliminary case management hearings, Cross said.

More than 100 cases have been adjourned due to ‘no returns’ and unavailability of an uninstructed advocate.

Cross said the criminal bar was having to rely on ‘anecdotal evidence’ of the impact of the solicitors’ action in the absence of a formal monitoring procedure to measure their success.

In his final words as chair, Cross thanked those who had shown him ‘kindness and encouragement’. But, in a nod to recent criticism the criminal bar has faced in taking action over the government’s reforms, he said: ‘For those though on both sides of the profession who generally have hidden behind cowardly attacks on social media you have nothing but my contempt.’