Cases at Newcastle Crown Court were today delayed as barristers went on strike over pay.
Several sentencing hearings and at least one trial due to go ahead were called off because of the action, the Chronicle understands. Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have staged walkouts at courts across England and Wales today in a dispute over legal aid fees.
The barristers will also refuse to accept new cases and to carry out 'return work' - stepping in and picking up court hearings and other work for colleagues whose cases are overrunning.
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The strike action is intended to last for four weeks, beginning with walkouts today and tomorrow then increasing by one day each week until a five-day strike from Monday, July 18 to Friday, July 22.
It means that cases at which barristers are required are likely to have to be postponed, including crown court trials. The industrial action has been called in response to a row over legal aid fees.
In December the Government published its long awaited Criminal Legal Aid Review, which recommended a minimum increase in legal aid fees of 15%. However, the CBA has argued this is too too low and has asked for 25%.
It argues some junior barristers end up earning less than the minimum wage once travel time to court and preparation work is factored in. And the Association says the long hours and low pay is prompting many to leave the profession.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the barrister strikes are "regrettable" and will "only delay justice for victims".
He added: "I encourage them to agree the proposed 15% pay rise which would see a typical barrister earn around £7,000 more a year."
This morning barristers and solicitors gathered outside courts across the country, including London's Old Bailey. More than 1,000 cases are expected to be affected by the strikes each day, adding to the huge backlog that already exists due to Covid.
But Kirsty Brimelow QC, vice chairwoman of the CBA argued that British justice was under threat.
Speaking outside Manchester Crown Court, she said: "The Criminal Bar Association has repeatedly warned the Government that the huge decline in real incomes at the criminal bar poses the most serious threat to the British legal system in decades.
"We have made our case over and over again to Government but our warnings continue to fall on deaf ears.
"They have no solution to saving the criminal justice system. This is a national crisis which is of Government making and it must be dealt with as a national emergency.
"We cannot allow further attacks on our profession when we know the reality of the crumbling courts and junior barristers, who walked away long before this action.
"We take this action in the name of citizens of this country because it is their justice system that we are determined to protect. We will not sit idly by and watch its destruction.
"We are doing what we have been trained to do, which is to fight for justice."
Speaking outside Bristol Crown Court, barrister Kannan Siva said more than one in four barristers have been "driven out of the jobs they loved because they simply can't afford to stay".
He said: "For junior criminal barristers to be paid below minimum wage, a median income of just £12,200 a year, is not only scandalous but it will choke off the supply of the next generation of advocates - that pool of advocates that will help society and become our future judges.
"And it means that victims and defendants will suffer years and years of waiting to get justice in court."
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