Manchester City hire £10,000-an-hour Boris Johnson Partygate barrister to fight Premier League charges February 8, 2023 Manchester City have hired the barrister who advised Boris Johnson over Partygate, Lord Pannick KC, to defend them against more than 100 charges brought by the Premier League. Pannick is one of the country’s leading barristers and can command fees of £10,000 an hour – equivalent to City top earner Kevin de Bruyne’s £400,000 salary, [...]
Raab vows to break barristers’ ‘near-monopoly’ over Crown Court trials August 24, 2022 Justice secretary Dominic Raab is seeking to undermine the barristers’ strike by breaking their “near-monopoly” over crown court trials, government sources told the Daily Mail. As the UK government faces the prospect of an all-out barristers strike from the start of next month, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is weighing up plans to expand the [...]
Criminal Barristers vote to escalate strike action over legal aid fees August 22, 2022 Criminal barristers today voted in favour of plans to cancel their bi-weekly court walkouts and run a continuous strike from 5 September onwards. The Criminal Bar Association’s members overwhelmingly backed the decision to strike on an “indefinite basis” on Monday morning. 2273 members backed escalation of strikes by 79.5 per cent, with 11 per cent supporting a continuation [...]
Criminal barristers set to vote on ending strike action following new pay offer September 29, 2022 Criminal barristers are set to vote on ending strike action following negotiations between the Criminal Bar Association and Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) today outlined a package of reforms and fee uplifts reached during the talks, which it said represented a further investment of £54 million in the criminal bar and [...]
City Exclusive – Criminal barristers lured to law firms as strikes set to escalate August 19, 2022 City law firms are making concerted efforts to capitalise on the collapse of the criminal justice system by hiring disgruntled barristers into their firms, recruiters and law firms exclusively told City A.M. Legal sector recruiters said they’ve seen a sharp uptick in law firms approaching them seeking to bolster their teams by hiring criminal [...]
Use of AI apps is fuelling plagiarism, as barrister warns more needs to be done to stop online exam cheating January 6, 2023 Artificial intelligence apps, such as the chatbot ChatGPT, could make the UK’s exam cheating problem worse, a top barrister who works on student appeals has warned. Increasingly sophisticated AI models are now able to produce “decent, plagiarism-free answers to a wide range of questions,” Daniel Sokol, a barrister at 12 King’s Bench Walk, said in [...]
Government has until November to end barristers’ strike before judges will be justified in releasing prisoners September 28, 2022 Judges acted unlawfully by releasing prisoners awaiting trial because of the barristers’ strike, a High Court has ruled, after warning the government has just two months to sort the situation out before courts will be justified in letting out those awaiting hearings. Crown Court judges in Bristol and Manchester who released prisoners on bail, on [...]
Striking barristers should accept government’s ‘generous offer,’ justice minister says July 6, 2022 Justice secretary James Cartlidge has called on striking barristers to “reconsider” their actions, after claiming the government’s current legal aid offer is “generous” enough. Speaking in the House of Commons, Cartlidge accused “those engaged in action” of “threatening to increase waiting times” as he doubled down on existing plans to hike legal aid fees by [...]
Top QCs accuse Lord Chief Justice of seeking to ‘intimidate’ striking barristers June 27, 2022 Tens of top QCs have accused the head of the judiciary in England and Wales of seeking to “intimidate” barristers with warnings they could face disciplinary action if they take part in strikes. In an open letter in The Times, senior barristers hit out at the Lord Chief Justice after he issued guidance telling judges [...]
Legal fee hike on current cases could end barristers strike, CBA chair suggests September 6, 2022 AN IMMEDIATE 15 per cent hike to legal aid fees for ongoing cases could be enough to end the barristers’ strike, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) hinted today. CBA chair Kirsty Brimelow told MPs today that the group would ballot its members on ending the strike if “significant” progress is made “That [...]