In its submission to the Treasury spending review this week, the Bar Council highlighted the financial difficulties some practitioners are enduring despite working full-time at the publicly funded criminal Bar. Some barristers in their first two years of practice were, in 2019/20, earning less than £13,000 per year pre-tax after they had paid essential expenses and memberships. This worked out at £6.25 per hour, the Bar Council said.
The Bar is urging the Treasury to increase the justice budget by £2.48bn to improve the courts and provide effective early legal advice to prevent problems spiralling out of control.
Chair of the Bar, Amanda Pinto QC said: ‘The spending review is the government’s chance to protect the rights of the British public and restore confidence in law and order in this country.
‘The justice sector is now in a dire state: outrageously long delays to people’s cases and shockingly low fees for legal professionals.’
Read the Bar’s spending review submission at: bit.ly/3jlYrK6.
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