On Monday 13 May the Chairman of the Bar, Maura McGowan QC, and Mark Hatcher, Director of Representation & Policy, are coming in to the House of Commons to meet Robert Buckland MP and myself, and some of the other former barristers who are now in the House. Both Rob and I did plenty of legal aid work and Rob is still a working Recorder who sits in the summer. This will be the second such meeting I have held with Bar representatives in the House in the last few months.
When the House breaks for the bank holiday in late May I am also meeting a number of local barristers and solicitors on Tuesday May 28 in the Hexham office.
There is widespread concern about the changes on a number of levels and I have received several representations from practitioners. I am studying the consultation myself so have no firm and final views about it but it is clearly deeply unpopular with the legal profession.
What is clear is that both government and the legal profession will need to find a way forward. However, the idea that there will be no cuts to the legal profession's state budget is simply untenable: government is still spending more than it earns and the state expenditure has to be cut. Noone wants this but we are having to make some very tough choices to a lot of budgets. Cases like very high cost cases [VHCC] still take up too much of the budget at the expense of the younger lawyers / cases.
For myself I have long favoured a Woolf style assessment on the fees at the end of almost all cases, being carried out by the Judge. This would take out all bureaucracy, as it did so successfully at the civil bar. It would allow Judges to case manage the costs, rather than a civil servant miles from the action.
However, I will look forward to meeting the Bar Chairman and listening to her and Rob Buckland MP's views, and as always welcome input from constituents who have concerns.
