The Bar Council has alleged that Crown Court cases are being disrupted because barristers are being forced to undertake litigators’ work when solicitors fail to attend hearings.

In a letter to the Legal Services Commission’s Criminal Defence Service, the chairman of the council’s remuneration committee, Michael Bowes QC, said barristers are being hampered and even prevented from doing their own job, causing ‘significant disruption’ to the smooth running of cases.

The letter came in response to a review of the litigators ­graduated fee scheme (LGFS), which introduced fee cuts in January 2008. Bowes says that, following the cuts, many solicitors are choosing not to send a representative to court, even in serious cases, as it is not cost-effective to do so.

He said the funding order should define explicitly the work expected of the litigator in return for their fee.

Peter Lodder QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: ‘This is not a criticism of solicitors. They are under the same economic pressures as we are and are being squeezed. We’d like to work together to find a system in which they feel they’re being properly paid for necessary work.’

Richard Miller, head of legal aid at the Law Society, said: ‘The government took savings out of the Crown Court when the LGFS was introduced, despite their own evidence showing that firms were on the brink of financial difficulties.’

Derek Hill, director of the LSC’s Criminal Defence Service, said the commission would conduct a full review of the scheme once it had sufficient data and that he would write to Bowes to address issues he raised.