A Bar Council survey of heads of chambers concluded this week that ‘many adjournments were unnecessary, exacerbating the unacceptably high backlog of court work’. Nearly three-quarters of respondents felt that more than a quarter of all hearings and trials listed during the preceding six weeks that had been adjourned could have gone ahead entirely or partly remotely.
Nearly all chambers are seeing a considerable reduction in work, with 75% of chambers finding court work at least halved.
According to the survey, even with current government support, 29% of chambers do not think they will survive more than three to six months, and 58% of chambers will not last six months to a year.
Criminal and family sets are hardest hit―86% of criminal chambers and 69% of family chambers where the majority of income is from publicly funded work, predict they will go under within a year.
The impact is felt more strongly outside of London, where 31% of chambers (compared to 16% of London sets) think they will go under within six months.
Amanda Pinto QC, Chair of the Bar Council, said: ‘These findings show that some barristers, especially those doing vital publicly funded work, face an uncertain future and that many do not expect their practices to survive.
‘Like many others who are self-employed, a lot of barristers do not qualify for government support. Add to that the drastic decline in court work, where barristers play such an important role, and it is no surprise that so many are expecting the worst. Unless the Lord Chancellor and the Treasury act now, who will be there to represent victims and defendants whose cases the government slung in the “backlog corner” long before COVID-19?’
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