Barristers on minimum wage
updated on 06 October 2020
Some barristers are earning less than the minimum wage following decades of underfunding and the Treasury has been warned that the justice system is at a “tipping point”.
Barristers on government fees could earn the equivalent of £6.25 per hour “despite their central role in clearing the 500,000-plus backlog of cases in the criminal courts”, the Bar Council revealed in an open letter.
According to the report, the low legal aid rates are having a “disproportionate impact on diversity” within the legal profession, with women, minority ethnic and state-educated barristers more likely to work in publicly funded areas of law.
The open letter said: “Once highly regarded as a vital public service, today’s system is widely acknowledged to be suffering from a decade of underinvestment.”
