Members of the No5 Criminal Team support the Criminal Bar Association’s stance and are refusing defence cases with a Legal Aid certificate dated from 1st April 2018.
As a Criminal Team we take this action reluctantly. We do however wholeheartedly endorse the following message from the Criminal Bar Association:
“This is far wider than any scheme relating to fees. The new AGFS was the final straw that exposed the chronic impoverishment of a once great system. The structure of the scheme is rational and sets right iniquities we should never have suffered. With sufficient investment and amendment in light of the Bar’s concerns the scheme could work. This will not of course fix the wider systemic problems. This is an issue of principle as well as survival”
Given there is no sign of the necessary investment as part of a wider requirement to properly fund the wider Criminal Justice System, criminal barristers at No5 have taken the decision to support the CBA and other barristers across England and Wales in this action.
