Demonstrations across the country to draw the public’s attention to the current state of the criminal justice system have resumed as talks between criminal bar chiefs and the government over legal aid funding continue.
Outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, CBA chair Kirsty Brimelow KC said: ‘On 21 September, we commenced talks with the Ministry of Justice after a meeting with the lord chancellor on 20 September. These talks, that were opened by the lord chancellor and the Ministry of Justice, were and are welcomed. They have taken a long time to reach, they have been a long time coming. This action started in April of this year in order to highlight the justice system being on its knees and the appalling rates of pay that our junior barristers are expected to work under.’
She added: ‘We share the same vision as the Ministry of Justice of having a world-class criminal justice system. We can no longer speak about a justice system that is anything other than broken and so the talks are ongoing and I will be leaving soon to carry on doing what I can and continue to welcome the positive approach to restoring and resurrecting trust between the criminal bar and the Ministry of Justice.’
Barristers also gathered outside Liverpool Crown Court (pictured above). Garden Court North’s Mira Hammad said junior barristers could walk away to do better-paid work in other areas of law. ‘But there are people who cannot walk away, people on the receiving end of the system. Defendants cannot walk away. Complainants cannot walk away. Witnesses who have been waiting to give evidence cannot walk away. We can walk away but the criminal justice system needs us.’
Hammad said she recently had dinner with a friend with whom she studied law, who now earns around £120,000 in a City firm. But Hammad said she had no regrets about specialising in criminal law. She told her colleagues: ‘I do not regret being part of something that’s important, being part of a system that allows us to have justice, that allows a young person who has made a mistake to have someone stand up on their behalf and say “these are the circumstances he came from”.’ This system is about people. This system is not about money or cases.’
Hammad said she was not willing to make excuses for a system that should treat defendants, victims and witnesses better. ‘People should expect better of the system. I’m tired of covering up for a system that could do differently and should do differently.’
Oli Renton, a barrister at Crucible Chambers, earlier told the Gazette about ‘all those people I started with’ who no longer practice criminal law. He said that many young barrister practise in crime because of their ‘passion’, but that there comes a point in their careers when they can no longer continue. ‘There comes a point at which the passion does not pay for that,’ he said.
Central Chambers’ Benjamin Knight, counsel in one of the custody time limit cases heard by the High Court this week, told the Liverpool gathering that any offer that comes back from the government ‘is not our final position’.
He said: ‘The negotiations you have, when you put to any client, is very rarely your final position. We know where our line is. The CBA knows where our line is.’
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