Last month court staff across the country took the unusual step of going on strike in a rare show of solidarity among all strands of the legal profession against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)’s controversial proposals to slice £220m off the £1.2bn annual criminal legal aid budget.
The strike, while said by lawyers and court officials alike to have caused little disruption, stands out for being part of a series of measures taken by the ordinarily fragmented profession to emphasise its profound disapproval of reforms proposed by justice secretary Chris Grayling, including the introduction of price competitive tendering (PCT), the removal of the automatic right to legal aid for defendants with disposable income of more than £37,500 and the restriction of the right for defendants to choose their own solicitor.
Both the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Law Society formally responded at the start of June to the government’s consultation on the proposals, and both were equally critical, with BSB chair Baroness Ruth Deech claiming: ‘These reforms may endanger the ability of our legal system to guarantee everyone a fair trial.’ The Law Society’s chief executive Des Hudson commented: ‘There is a very high level of concern across all legal practitioners at these proposals. Among many examples, the attack on a defendant’s right to freedom of choice of his or her lawyer is grave. The state will prosecute you and then decide who can represent you.’
The BSB went so far as to say the reforms could push people to plead guilty as the government proposes to pay legal aid lawyers the same amount for a guilty or not guilty plea.
Other efforts by ordinarily non-militant lawyers and their supporters included a protest on the evening of 4 June, culminating in protestors forming a blockade outside the MoJ.
High-profile opponents of the reforms include former Court of Appeal judge Sir Anthony Hooper and 90 QCs showed their opposition to the proposals in an open letter to The Daily Telegraph, published on 29 May.
Meanwhile, in the latest blow to Grayling’s plans, on 13 June the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned the plans ‘may have an adverse impact on the right to a fair trial’ and ‘exclude vulnerable people from access to justice’.
In an article in the London Evening Standard, Grayling accused the profession of making over-the-top claims and said that cuts must happen to protect NHS budgets.
However, Bar Council chair Maura McGowan QC said: ‘These proposals would move us from having a justice system which is admired all over the world, to a system where price trumps all. PCT may look as though it achieves short-term savings, but it is a blunt instrument that will leave deep scars on our justice system for far longer.’