Criminal Bar Association votes to accept legal aid deal

The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) last week voted to accept the deal offered by the Ministry of Justice to suspend legal aid cuts to Graduated Fee cases for a year.

After a ballot of its 5,000 members, the criminal Bar will now cease its refusal of returns. The deal will continue to be a grievous disappointment to criminal solicitors who feel abandoned by the Bar, as well as many barristers who, probably rightly, perceive that it will do little to safeguard legal aid and the existence of a fair and effective justice system in the coming years.

Nigel Lithman, chair of the CBA, said: "This is another milestone in the history of the criminal Bar. Having provided first-class advocacy services both in prosecuting and defending criminal cases, they resorted to strikes as pay cuts threatened the destruction of the criminal justice system. This action led the government to shelve its cuts in the vast majority of cases and, following a ballot, the Bar has now confirmed that in return it will suspend these strikes. We trust the government will never again confuse the fact that we are a responsible profession with the idea that we are a powerless one."