Barrister's strikes

[YetiTeri]

The latest group of workers to come out on strike are Barristers. The average wage for a newly qualified barrister is £12,200.

My question isn't AIBU it's is BoJo unreasonable for going on a second holiday whilst our transport network and our criminal justice system grinds to a halt?

No he's not unreasonable its best he doesn't touch anything he'll only make a mess of it.

Not sure even he could make things worse tbf

I really don’t care what he does at this juncture. Probably best if he doesn’t interfere, he’d only fuck it up.

I really don't care about BoJo, he'll be going soon. I keep forgetting he's still prime minister. I'd be more interested to know what the 2 candidates are thinking about the situation (Truss probably thinks we don't need barristers, and Sunak that they are paid too much anyway)

Boris Johnson should be needing the service of a barrister. As he should be facing several criminal charges.

Agreed. Mind you so should David Cameron for calling that fucking referendum!

Can anyone explain how they only earn that amount which is below minimum wage?

They are essentially self employed and get paid a set amount from the goverment each case, therefore Junior barristers get paid much less especially as they have to pay for their own expenses, travel etc.

As far as I can work out it's because the rates set by the government are too low to cover the hours they are needed (for prosecution cases or legal aid defence) but because they are self employed they're not subject to minimum wage.

The offer the government has made doesn't cover cases already in the backlog - approx 3 years worth.

They also have to pay chambers fees of around 15-20 plus percent of their earnings, depending on the chambers.

When things were more paper-based, solicitors frequently didn’t pay up and barristers couldn’t sue for their fees. Close relative lost 10k in unpaid fees and had to just write it off when a junior barrister. Not easy, especially when public perception was that barristers are always well off.

It's appalling how little criminal barristers are paid - I completely support their strike. It makes you wonder why any of them choose to do it.

The county court backlog was not caused by Covid, it was caused by the closing of courts and the criminal underfunding of barristers. Don’t let them lie to you - as the Secret Barrister would say.

Lefty lawyers whom take all the tax payers money they are not. They are essential to a functioning justice system. Much easier to go into other areas of law.

This will highlight just how broken the system is - because of 12 years of Tory cuts.

I remember after doing Jury service I was fascinated by the whole process and was shocked how little the average barrister earns compared to the average solicitor.

I work in Legal Aid and it is completely COMPLETELY fucked. Not only are the barristers going out, but plenty of firms are going to end up stopping doing legal aid because the pay is so abysmal. We just can't talk about it at work as it's so fucking depressing - it feels like this country is doing nothing right and god knows where we'll end up.

The backlog is also caused by cutting staff levels within the Courts ie Civil Servants. So Judges are not getting the admin support they need and as a result cannot take on so many cases.
It is a popular myth that Judges are well paid considering the level of expertise they have to have and the responsibility they have, they are not on a huge amount.
I don't want to bring this down to a political level but these cuts were brought in by the Tory Government.

What a lot of people seem to forget too, is that these people are also hired by the CPS to prosecute, they become judges. Chronic underfunding now is a disaster for the whole system, not just defence barrister.