Criminal solicitors have voted to walk out in a protest against a £215m cut in the legal aid budget and fee cuts for lawyers of up to 30 per cent, with their action coinciding with a 24-hour stoppage by the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo).
This will be the third action taken by lawyers since the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced in January that “efficiencies” were needed to ensure that legal aid remained “sustainable”.
This time the action is not being co-ordinated with barristers from the Criminal Bar Association, but it is still expected to lead to widespread disruption of criminal cases in Magistrates and Crown Courts.
Napo members will stop work for 24 hours from midday on Monday 31 March as a protest against plans to outsource up to 70 per cent of the service, which they describe as “recklessly dangerous”. It will be the union’s second strike over the reforms since November.
Meanwhile, the solicitors will walk out on April 1, although they are not describing the action as a strike, as this could raise complex questions over their contractual obligations to the Legal Aid Agency.
A spokesman for the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association said that their decision is an indication of the anger and frustration at the Government’s plans to cut £215m from the annual criminal legal aid budget.
He added that the fact 500 lawyers holding more than 700 legal aid contracts voted to do this means that they are at the end of their tether and not prepared to put up with the situation any longer.
However the MoJ has said that it has no choice but to look for the proposed savings, as the UK’s legal aid budget is around £2bn a year, making it one of the most expensive in the world.