Degrading, demoralising, relentless, ridiculous - these are the words used to describe working conditions and remuneration by criminal legal aid solicitors, the High Court heard yesterday.

The Criminal Law Solicitors' Association and London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association are interested parties in the Law Society's legal challenge against the government over criminal legal aid fees.

Adam Wagner, for the associations, told Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Jay that the representative bodies fully support the Society on all of its grounds.

The court heard that the associations had filed 22 witness statements and evidence was given by solicitors and practitioners from across the country, whose experience ranged from three years to five decades. 

One solicitor works every day, including weekends and bank holidays, and is often woken up during the night by calls from the Duty Solicitor Call Centre. Another often gets only one hour of sleep when on duty and the judges were shown a copy of the solicitor's 'extraordinary schedule' when the solicitor is both at the magistrates' court representing clients and on the duty rota.

Wagner said poor conditions and pay have led to a 'vicious circle'. A rapid decline in the duty solicitor scheme, and degrading and demoralising poor pay lead to more solicitors leaving criminal defence. There are then fewer solicitors to cover the duty rota - which means working more hours and travelling more miles to provide advice and assistance. 'The conditions for those solicitors becomes even more intolerable. The wheels continue to turn with ever fewer spokes,' Wagner said.

In one area, the court heard that nine duty solicitors had been lost to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Wagner said: 'No one can match CPS terms. The CPS offers thousands of pounds more than criminal defence solicitors can... The vicious circle really comes down to money. The reason they cannot attract new talent is because they cannot offer decent terms. The reason they cannot prevent bleeding away of practitioners to the CPS and GLD because they cannot offer terms those organisations can.'

One firm was unable to recruit a duty solicitor for three years. 

One solicitor said in their witness statement that minor increases in remuneration so far amounted to nothing more than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The Bellamy review plotted a route to avoiding the iceberg, Wagner told the court. 'The interested parties implore the court to intervene to avert that disaster.'

 

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