HEADLINES about ‘fat cat barristers helping criminals’ are designed to stir up public emotion in the wake of the Criminal Bar Association’s vote for all-out strike action from September 5, a Bradford lawyer said today.

The barrister and others around the country are dismissing claims that they are rolling in money – with many saying they earn below the minimum wage.

One barrister from the North West said she was paid £7,000 a year more as a coffee barista.

The Bradford barrister said they and colleagues at the Criminal Bar usually worked around 60 hours per week.

“The pressure carried by those barristers is huge. Cases may involve the death of a child, or neglect and abuse. Any work done on the case ‘out of court’ is unpaid. Any work done on a weekend/evening is unpaid,’ the barrister said.

“The headlines are designed to stir public opinion and emotion. There may well be thoughts of ‘fat cat lawyers’ who ‘help criminals’.

“But as is often the case, those opinions are never from those who have direct experience of what is actually going on in our justice system.

“This government thought that for years it was ok to sit three or four out of eight courts at Bradford Crown; that it was ok to allow defendants to sit on bail without charge for months. This was to keep down costs.

“Unfortunately, there is an appetite for documenting ‘figures’ and for being able to show ’trends’. But behind the gloss there were courts sitting empty and restrictions on the number of days a court could sit. There were also pressures put on whether or not cases should be charged.”

The barrister said they weren’t trying to engender sympathy but to put into context the amount of work required to bring cases of seriousness to court.

Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have been walking out on alternate weeks but were balloted this week on whether to escalate the industrial action.

“Despite the headlines, this is not about money, albeit the fact that fees have not been increased at all for many years. It is about the fact that in ten years’ time there will not be anyone to do this job. The hours, the workload and the lack of support will put off any future generations,” the local barrister said.

CBA vice chairwoman Kirsty Brimelow QC said this is ‘last-resort action’ over a demand for less money than it costs the Government for the courts to sit empty.

“The remedy is for an injection of money into the backlog of cases, which currently stands at 60,000, that barristers are working on that will cost the Government only £1.1 million per month. Currently, it’s costing much more for the courts to sit empty.”

Criminal barristers are due to receive a 15% fee rise from the end of September, mean-ing they will earn £7,000 more per year.

But there has been anger that the proposed pay rise will not be made effective immedi-ately and will only apply to new cases, not those already sitting in the backlog waiting to be dealt with by courts.