Solicitors have backed criminal barristers threatening to strike over the level of fees paid for publicly funded work, warning that the legal aid system is in danger of falling apart.

A poll carried out by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) revealed that 97% of the 1,024 CBA members who responded would back direct action and 79% would take it if fixed-fee rates paid for Crown Court cases lasting up to ten days are not increased.


David Spens QC, CBA chairman, called for the payment rates - which have been frozen since 1997 - to be updated in line with inflation.


He warned: 'This is not an empty threat. The survey shows an unprecedented strength of feeling up and down the country; there is a degree of unanimity and purpose that I have not encountered before.'


Mr Spens declined to say at what point strike action might be taken, but he warned of the consequences should impending fee negotiations with the government fail to produce a satisfactory result. Talks with the Department for Constitutional Affairs were meant to start last month but have yet to get underway.


Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: 'Solicitors will have every sympathy with the criminal bar - we are in an even worse position.


'When you don't increase pay rates for so long, you are storing up a huge problem for the future, when something drastic has to be done. We are fast approaching the time when only the drastic will do.'


He added: 'If the government had kept legal aid remuneration rates in line with inflation, we would not be in this position.'


Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, agreed. He said: 'The barristers have got a very reasonable case, as do other lawyers working in the legal aid field. We all need to persuade the government that it needs to fund the legal aid system properly if it's not going to fall apart.'


Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva claimed the government had failed to plan how its new criminal justice policies would affect the overall spend.


She added: 'The government must address the impact that the ever-increasing cost of criminal legal aid is having on the civil budget, and develop a long-term legal aid plan that ensures vulnerable people get the help they need and all advisers are rewarded fairly.'


A spokeswoman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs admitted that pay was in need of reform but insisted that overall, defence barristers' earnings have increased.


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