Criminal Legal Aid
The Criminal barristers of St John’s Buildings support the action being taken by criminal solicitors in relation to cuts of 8.75% to criminal legal aid for litigation. As a result, our criminal teams in Manchester, Sheffield, Chester and Liverpool have held an internal meeting and have voted to refuse to undertake any work on cases where the Representation Order is dated 1st July 2015 or after.
Many of our members are members of the Criminal Bar Association and we continue to await the outcome of the CBA ballot in relation to the issue of “no-returns”. However, the majority of our members have decided that, with immediate effect, they do not intend to accept returns. These are individual decisions and we support our members of Chambers in reaching this decision. We are reviewing this issue constantly.
