The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) said on Monday that lawyers in England and Wales who are involved in criminal trials have voted to start striking indefinitely from next month, causing more interruptions to court proceedings in a dispute over government funding.
Since several months ago, barristers in England and Wales have been intermittently refusing to take on new cases or cover cases for colleagues that have gotten out of hand. The CBA said that nearly 80% of voting members now supported intensifying that action.
Starting on September 5, the day Boris Johnson’s replacement as prime minister is scheduled to be named, they will strike indefinitely.
The CBA leadership wrote to members before the strike ballot opened, saying, “It is a decision to which we have been driven after years and years of abominable neglect of the Criminal Justice System and the cynical exploitation of our time, effort, and goodwill by successive governments determined to deliver justice on the cheap.”
The attorneys who represent clients in criminal court proceedings claim that real incomes have plummeted, falling 28% since 2006, with junior barristers earning only 12,200 pounds ($15,030) on average in their first three years of practice, driving many to give up their careers.
The CBA has stated that the idea would not take into effect until the end of 2023 at the earliest. The government had given barristers a 15% wage increase.
British courts already have a backlog of about 58,000 cases, which has been made worse in part by the COVID-19 outbreak. However, according to CBA, the justice system has long been dysfunctional due to a lack of attorneys.
The strike is the most recent in a string of labor disputes in Britain, where rail, port, and airline employees have walked off the job because pay increases have not kept pace with the country’s spiraling inflation, which is expected to reach 13% later this year.
