Barristers fighting pay cuts ‘take home less per hour than a car mechanic’

By cahuckerby, March 30, 2010

Criminal case barristers delivered a broadside to Jack Straw over their pay, saying that most take home less per hour than a car mechanic.

Paul Mendelle, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, which represents 6,000 barristers, says that barristers conducting the most serious criminal trials typically earn £60 an hour gross.

After tax, overheads and expenses, they take home £40 an hour — “less than the mechanic who MOT’d your car” — yet they defend people in the criminal court on cases as serious as wounding with intent.

He also warns that plans by the Justice Secretary to cut rates of pay by a further 18 per cent will lead to a “second rate system” and miscarriages of justice. Mr Mendelle’s angry riposte comes in a letter to The Times today after Mr Straw last week outlined radical plans for further reforms to legal aid.

Mr Straw said that the UK was “over-lawyered”, with one lawyer for every 400 people, and announced proposals for the tendering of criminal legal aid work that will lead to hundreds of firms going out of business.

In a move that has futher infuriated the profession he published a list of the top ten criminal barristers receiving more than £100,000 gross during the year 2008/09 from legal aid work.

There were also, Mr Straw added, 874 barristers who earned between £100,000 and £299,000 gross and a further 75 who received more than £300,000. But in its own a detailed response, the Bar Council has said that the data is inaccurate and misleading — and rounds on Mr Straw for publishing the figures without, as in previous years, giving the Bar a chance to correct errors.

In the case of one barrister, at least two thirds of the fees received related to work done between 1994 and 2006, and not one year, it says.

In another case, the figure included a “substantial” duplicate payment made in error. He immediately repaid the money but the sum is still listed as part of his earnings.

The figures also included sums paid by barristers to other barristers in the case or to solicitors; payments at old, higher rates that have now been replaced with a new scheme; VAT and overheads, such as rent to chambers.

The briefing note includes a list of typical earnings in the most common crown court trials, for a day’s work — seven hours plus three hours’ preparation.

It shows that barristers of ten years’ experience receive roughly £50 to £60 an hour (before payment of overheads), leaving £30-40 an hour net — before any provision for sick pay, annual leave or pension contributions.

The sample of barristers defending recent Crown Court cases found that the daily fee for a nine-day theft case was £521.66 (ten years’ qualified); for a four-day robbery trial was £483.91 (three years’ qualified); for a sexual assault it was £568.74 (four years’ qualified) and for a case of actual bodily harm (six years’ qualified) £515.68.

The row is the latest between the profession over proposed reforms to the £2.1 billion legal aid scheme which ministers are determined to cut back.

However, the body that runs the legal aid scheme, the Legal Services Commission, has been castigated over mistakes and inefficiencies and the chief executive forced to resign. The Commission is now being brought under the close control of the Ministry of Justice.

Source : Times

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