A longstanding criminal defence solicitor has quit the sector and resigned his seat on the Law Society’s Council over the government’s ‘decimation’ of the justice system.
Ben Brown, who joined Bhatia Best in 2012, says he has had enough of seeing ‘dedicated and caring lawyers sweating their b****cks off to be derided, disregarded and abused by those in power’.
‘Next week I leave criminal defence,’ Brown wrote on LinkedIn last weekend. ‘I joined one of the largest criminal defence law firms 12 years ago. Since then I have seen a succession of governments strangle the life out of the criminal justice system, ignore the warnings and (their own) consultations about the collapse of the justice system, and dilute the quality and availability of legal representation to the most vulnerable and needy of our society.
‘We are often told that the British legal system is the best in the world. That notion is now laughable.’
He added: ‘I’ve witnessed the mass exodus of talented and wonderful practitioners, and seen dedicated and caring lawyers sweating their b****cks off to be derided, disregarded and abused by those in power. Enough is enough.’
Brown went on to state that many criminal law firms ‘are going bankrupt because of the derisory fees which have not risen since 1991’. He added: ‘The financial constraints, bureaucracy, adminstrative burdens, and unnecessary burdensome regulations imposed by faceless civil servants who have never done a day in practice are phenomenal. The future generation of criminal lawyers leave university with £000s of debt.
‘Will the last duty solicitor please turn out the lights.’
In January the Law Society won a High Court battle against the government over criminal legal aid fees. Chancery Lane took the government to court over the decision not to raise criminal legal aid fees by the minimum 15% recommended by the independent criminal legal aid review in December 2021.
’We are meeting the lord chancellor later this month,’ said a Law Society spokesperson today. 'We will set out the urgent need for criminal legal aid to get the funding it so desperately requires, as the High Court judgment made clear, and how this can be implemented as quickly as possible.'
Between spells at Bhatia Best, Brown was Crown Counsel to St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. He has been Law Society Council member for criminal defence since October 2022.
