Legal Aid: extra funds from 2006 spending review unlikely

The criminal courts will organise their lists of hearings and trials so that cases can continue as long as possible in a bid to limit the damage caused by next week's expected strike by barristers, the Lord Chancellor said at the Labour party conference in Brighton at the weekend.


Individual barristers are planning to refuse new publicly funded instructions for criminal cases from 3 October, to coincide with the implementation of cuts to the graduated fees scheme.


Lord Falconer told the Gazette: 'All of the enquiries I have made suggest that there will be some people who do not accept work - there will be a very mixed picture. But it will not have any impact for some time. We are prepared for it and I am determined that the justice system will continue as before. I very much hope that they do not do it [go on strike].'


Lord Falconer also told delegates that the government's spending review in 2006 held out little hope for extra money for the legal aid budget - if more funds become available, these would be spent on health, education and fighting crime. He said the solution lay in the review of legal aid procurement being carried out by Lord Carter of Coles, and restoring the balance between the criminal and civil legal aid budgets.


However, that redistribution was attacked by Vera Baird QC, MP for Redcar. '[The government] is robbing the criminal justice system to support the civil justice system,' she said.


Meanwhile, Patrick Gibbs, a barrister at 3 Raymond Buildings and secretary of the Criminal Bar Association, told the Gazette that while some barristers will refuse instructions, they will turn up for free to do bail and other hearings that affect an individual's liberty. 'No one in custody will be put in jeopardy,' he said.