Crime victims "suffering unimaginable distress" due to barrister strike delays
Stormontâs justice minister has accused criminal barristers in Northern Ireland of making âunreasonableâ and âimpossibleâ demands in an ongoing industrial dispute over fees.
Naomi Long asked why defence barristers are extending their ongoing boycott of legal aid-funded Crown Court cases for another four weeks given she has already committed to increasing their fee rates by 16%.
Ms Long said there are processes to follow before any rise can be introduced and she cannot simply click her fingers and make it happen immediately. She also robustly rejected a claim from the Bar Council that her department has not been meaningfully engaging with barristers to find a resolution to the impasse.
READ MORE: Halifax bank confirms branch closures affecting Northern Ireland
READ MORE: Plans for major changes to NI rates system could raise millions in extra revenue
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher also raised concern about the action which has seen many Crown Court cases grind to a halt. He said the people most affected by the growing backlog of cases are victims and warned that the risk of them withdrawing support for prosecutions is likely to increase the longer the delays extend.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have not been appearing in legally-aided Crown Court cases in January, and on Tuesday evening they announced the action will continue through February.
In addition to the withdrawal of services, criminal barristers have refused to take new instructions in the most serious cases since the beginning of November 2024. From February, the refusal to take new instructions will extend to multi-complainant âCategory Dâ cases.
The CBA argues that fees for legally-aided criminal work have not been increased since 2005, rendering them worth just 50% of their original value. Ms Long and Mr Boutcher were asked about the extension of the boycott as they attended the launch in Belfast of a new initiative to combat domestic violence and misogynistic attitudes in Northern Ireland.
âI stood up in December in the (Assembly) chamber and committed to the 16% increase in uplift in legal service fees for the profession,â said the minister.
âI think most people would find a 16% uplift in their fees quite a significant move from the department.â
Ms Long added: âIt is not true to say that the department has not engaged. In fact, I have reached out and asked for an urgent meeting with the Bar. I already have a meeting scheduled with the Law Society.
âSo itâs not true to say that â my officials have been constantly engaged and we have changed our order of programme in order to try to reflect their concerns.
âHowever, there are some things that they are demanding that are not just unreasonable, they are impossible. I have to go through due process in order to bring that 16% increase into being. There are processes in place that have to be followed and it doesnât only apply to legal aid, it applies to every piece of public expenditure.
âI cannot simply click my fingers today and make that happen tomorrow. That is not a reasonable demand. And my concern is that, as we have sought to meet the Barâs concerns, they have added more and more impossible demands to the list.
âAnd I would have to ask them now, what is the end game they foresee? Because if it is resolution, we need to meet each other halfway. But, at the moment, the people who are suffering are not the barristers who are on strike, they are the victims who are waiting for serious cases to be heard. They are the police and the PPS (Public Prosecution Service) and the judiciary who are having to reorganise the courts to accommodate the delays.
âBut my first and most significant priority has got to be those vulnerable victims, many of whom are suffering unimaginable distress because of delay. We need to bring this to a conclusion. I am a willing partner in wanting to do that and seeking to resolve it, but weâve got to meet each other halfway.â
Commenting on the situation, Mr Boutcher said: âWhen any of these disputes happen the people who get affected by this, mostly impacted by this, are victims. The longer legal cases go on, the more likelihood there is that the victim tires of supporting the prosecution, and that is not good for anybody, and I want us to be a victim-focused society.â
He continued: âWe need to get back to work. We need to make sure that victims are supported, that justice happens more speedily than it currently does in Northern Ireland and thatâs, I think, a place we all want to be.â
Announcing the extension of the boycott on Tuesday, chairman of the Bar Council Donal Lunny KC said: âThis extended action on the part of the Criminal Bar Association is regrettable but also became inevitable as January progressed and the Department of Justice failed to engage meaningfully with the Bar in respect of the serious concerns which have given rise to the CBAâs action.
âSuch limited engagement as there has been has served to exacerbate, rather than to alleviate, the concerns of the CBA around the departmentâs approach to the administration of the system of criminal legal aid in our Crown Courts.
âThese concerns are reflected in the fact that turnout was the highest of any of the recent CBA votes on the current industrial action and in the fact that almost 90% of participating CBA members voted in support of an extension of the withdrawal.â
Mr Lunny added: âCriminal barristers want to be in court, representing their clients, running and resolving criminal cases â cases that often involve deeply complex and serious matters.
âThe action of the CBA has been taken as a last resort and is symptomatic of the access to justice crisis that has caused the deterioration of the provision of publicly funded legal services.
âThe Bar of Northern Ireland has at all times been, and remains, ready, willing, and able to engage in meaningful dialogue with the Department of Justice in order to resolve the access to justice crisis.â