London 22 August : Criminal lawyers in England and Wales have decided in favor of an all-out strike scheduled for next month in an ongoing dispute with the authorities over work and pay.The members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have been striking on alternate weeks , but they were voted on whether to intensify the industrial strike with an indefinite and continuous strike that will begin on the 5th of September, according to the news agency dpa.
The ballot was closed at midnight on Sunday night and the results were declared on Monday’s morning.
CBA vice-chairwoman Kirsty Brimelow said it’s “last-resort action” in response to a demand for less than what it would cost the Government to have the courts remain empty.
She explained to the BBC: “The effect (of the strike) will be that courts remain empty with cases and trials never being considered.It’s a last resort option.
“The solution is an injection of funds to help with the backlog of cases that currently stand at 60,000 cases.This is what barristers have been working on.This would cost the government just 1.1 million pounds ($1.18 million) per month.
“Currently it costs much more to have courts be empty.”
Based on Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures More than 6,000 hearings in courts have been halted as due to the escalating nature of the dispute over the conditions and fees set by the government for legal aid advocacy.
The data that have been released as part of Freedom of information laws indicate that in the first 19 days of industrial action, which ran from June 27 between June 27 and August 5 there were 6,235 court proceedings interrupted, including 1,415 trials in England as well as Wales.
Criminal lawyers are set to receive a 15 percent fee increase from the close of September, which means they will earn an extra 7,000 pounds annually.
However, there has been a sense of frustration over the fact that the proposed increase isn’t going to be implemented immediately and will only be applicable only to cases that are new, not to those currently sitting in the backlog, waiting to be addressed with by the courts.
The MoJ previously stated that it had “repeatedly clarified” to the CBA that backdating payments will require the need for a “fundamental modification” in how fees are paid, and added: “That reform would cost an unimaginably large amount of taxpayers money and would take longer to implement, which means barristers will have to wait longer to receive payment.”
