23Jul 2022 by Charles E. Price

London lawyers refuse legal aid jobs in dispute over fees | Legal aid

LAW
Solicitors in London are turning down new instructions for defendants accused of assaults on emergency workers and harassment offenses in an escalating dispute over legal aid fees.Criminal defense lawyers in the capital are already refusing burglary cases because they say legal aid fees are too low.Hesham Puri, head of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association (LCCSA), said: “The impact will be people being unrepresented and huge delays for victims and witnesses. Of course, we don't want that, but the work is just so badly paid. The entire system is broken from years of underfunding and lawyers have had enough.“If we don't fight for the future of our ailing profession now, in five years' time police stations and magistrates courts will no longer have proper access to justice. Victims, witnesses and…
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04Jul 2022 by Charles E. Price
Courts backlog worsens as junior barristers quit over pay

Courts backlog worsens as junior barristers quit over pay

LAW
As a newly qualified barrister Alejandra Llorente Tascon, 29, once found herself struggling to afford travel to get to her cases. Now a barrister for six years, she estimates she still has about £60,000 in student debt. “A couple of years ago I had to go into the clerks' room in my old chambers and say I did not have the money to go to court. What do I do?” said Tascon, who grew up on a Battersea council estate with her mother, a single parent who works as a cleaner. Tascon is one of thousands of barristers in England and Wales who have gone on strike over cuts to their pay, with a second wave of walkouts starting this week. Criminal barristers are lawyers who represent criminal cases in…
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