Trials disrupted as barristers boycott high-cost case panel

The Government is in crisis talks with the Bar Council after the poor uptake of the very high-cost criminal cases (VHCC) panel has threatened the number of major trials going ahead.The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Bar Council and Legal Services Commission (LSC) are in last-ditch talks to bolster the VHCC panel after the majority of barristers boycotted the panel over poor fee arrangements. The shortage of barristers - only 110 advocates out of the 2,300 offered contracts signed up by April because of the reduced fees - has left a number of major criminal trials at risk of disruption and delay.Peter Lodder QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: "Barristers have not signed up to the contract offered by the Legal Services Commission as fees have been set at such a low rate - ludicrous levels! As a result there are not enough people available on the panel to do the work." A working group comprising the MoJ, Bar Council and LSC has been set up to create a new system for the VHCC panel, which will come into effect from next July, but the Government is hoping to come up with an interim solution until that point to prevent disruption. Critics argue the current solution to the poor take-up - proposing that panel solicitors will be able to instruct non-panel barristers at negotiable fees that do not exceed those on the VHCC contract - has not worked. The Bar Council wants to see a graduated fees system which would effectively remunerate advocates per case rather than by the hour.The current VHCC contract offers QCs a rate of £476 for each day spent in court. Top junior barristers will receive £390 and a junior acting alone will be paid £285 per day. For preparatory work, silks will earn £91-£145 an hour while junior barristers can earn £43 a day. Earlier this year Bar Council chairman Timothy Dutton QC warned that lawyers do not provide commoditised services and said the proposed changes to the funding of certain cases in England and Wales could "create a second-class service unless we can agree an approach [that] recognises that a case is not a commodity".

September 18, 2008 at 02:00 AM

1 minute read