Barristers may strike over legal aid cuts. Unfortunately it is only the Criminal Bar. No indication that the Civil Bar have the stuffing to do anything about the civil cuts. Another indication of why Clarke left his mates in crime alone, they are more likely to make a fuss over cuts.
"Barristers may strike over legal aid reforms and feesCriminal Bar Association head accuses government of duplicity as he warns of action that hit courts across England and Wales
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Friday 18 May 2012
Max Hill QC attacked the cut in fees as well as the £350m cut in the legal aid budget, saying the age of Rumpole, above, is dead. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
The head of the Criminal Bar Association is to raise the spectre of strike action by criminal barristers across England and Wales in protest at cuts in fees and legal aid reforms.
In a confrontational speech, Max Hill QC, will accuse politicians of "duplicity". signalling a significant souring of the relationship between the legal community and the coalition government.
Disappointed by criminal fees being repeatedly frozen, then cut by 13.5% by the last Labour government and again by a further 11% by the current administration. Hill will declare that the age of "Rumpole is dead".
The popular perception of "fat cat" lawyers wallowing in claret is inaccurate, Hill will assert, to an audience expected to include the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge. "We may be [Rumpole's] successors but we spend our days worrying about paying the mortgage; worrying about how we can ever afford a pension."
He will declare: "So let us fight, and let us remember the option to strike ... demand better treatment. No more cuts, I say, either for the defence or the prosecution. Do not allow them to say that we must take our share of future cuts demanded by the comprehensive spending review.................."
