Courts backlog worsens as junior barristers quit over pay
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…