Criminal barristers are to receive a 15 per cent fee rise from the end of September, the government announced just days after they closed courts by going on strike.
The rise will see a typical criminal barrister receive an additional £7,000 a year, said the Ministry of Justice.
But the Criminal Bar Association said that further walkouts will go ahead as planned over the coming weeks, as the offer does not meet their demands for improved pay, but merely brings forward the mechanism for a previously-announced improvement in fees.
Criminal solicitors will also receive a 15 percent increase for their work in police stations and magistrates’ and youth courts, with further multi-million-pound reforms to solicitors’ pay still under consideration.
Members of the CBA walked out on Tuesday, many joining picket lines outside the Old Bailey and other courts in their wigs and black gown, in a row over legal aid fees for representing defendants who cannot afford to cover the costs themselves. Further strikes were threatened over the coming weeks.
A CBA spokesperson told The Independent: “Today’s announcement is regrettably nothing new, as the MOJ had always made it clear that the new payment scheme would only come into effect this autumn and only lock into new instructions from then.
“It won’t be retrospective and therefore the record backlog of 58,000-plus cases will still be paid under the old rates for the years it will take to complete them.”
