Michael Turner QC, former Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, writes regarding the new Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme.
Much of what I would wish to say has been more ably put by Polly Toynbee in this recent article.
However, now that the cuts under the new Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme are beginning to bite, it is worth looking at what they actually mean. I set out only some examples of payment under the new scheme below:
Multi-handed Violent Disorder – up to 10,000 ppe + CCTV evidence
Brief fee: £750 (including all prep, cons and day 1 of trial)
Refresher: £400
Multi-handed conspiracy to GBH – up to 10,000 ppe + CCTV evidence
Brief fee: £1,000 (including all prep, cons and day 1 of trial)
Refresher: £500
Multi-handed conspiracy to Kidnap/False Imprisonment – up to 10,000 ppe + CCTV evidence
Brief fee: £1,300 (including all prep, cons and day 1 of trial)
Refresher £500
Child Cruelty/Child Neglect – up to 10,000 ppe, regardless of complexity, regardless of expert evidence on both sides
Brief fee: £750 (including all prep, cons and day 1 of trial)
Refresher £500
s20 GBH; Threats to Kill – up to 10,000 ppe + CCTV evidence
Brief fee: £600 (including all prep, cons and day 1 of trial)
Refresher: £325
Assisting an offender (even when your client is on the indictment in a murder trial but only charged with this offence) – up to 10,000 ppe + CCTV evidence
Brief fee: £550 (including all prep, cons and day 1 of trial)
Refresher £300
Some of these fees might increase modestly when the scheme is revised this autumn but these are the fees that we will currently receive if we accept these cases. Maybe more importantly, it was a mantra of the latest action that in taking the stand we were, we wanted to save the legal aid system as a whole. That cry was dropped almost as soon as it was uttered and did certainly not feature as part of the negotiations.
Whilst we were making our own ridiculous deal with the Government and thinking yet again we had got one over on our sister profession, they were taking the Government to Court. And guess what? They won.
Whilst we have given away the 10,000 page count they retain theirs.
Why did the Bar Council or the CBA not take judicial review proceedings, one may well ask. I am afraid I have not got the answer. I have asked them to publish any advice they had on the matter, however. That presupposes they sought any. To many of us this now an open wound as we were crying out that no negotiations could be continued and certainly not concluded until the Government revealed their figures. Well once again, when that stance has been challenged the court has wholeheartedly agreed.
In times gone by, when our leaders had made such a hash of things they would have hung their heads in shame and resigned. Taken the honorable way out. Not a bit of it; they prance around like the Emperor in his new clothes.
Do our venerable leaders have any idea how to rectify what has been given away so readily ? I expect that the answers will come on the back of a postage stamp, if at all.
This is not written as an “ I told you so piece”, but more to lay down the gauntlet to those who now lead us to suggest where we might acquire a paddle, more accurately two 90 horse power engines.
Michael Turner QC