England and Wales: Overworked criminal barristers forced to skip breaks

Criminal barristers are having to regularly skip breaks in order to get work done, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association has said.

The Gazette reports that a straw poll by Angela Rafferty QC showed that practitioners were expected to conduct research for judges, prepare interview edits and draft admissions “all while everyone else is on a lunch break”.

In her weekly message she added: “I know that you are all being asked to do more and more for less and less including training outside work hours and the constant drafting of documents and reading of huge volumes of material you know you will never be paid for.”

Ms Rafferty also said that barristers are being asked to prepare skeleton arguments which have been “asked for at a moment’s notice”.

“All of this might be acceptable if we are being properly remunerated and valued. But we are not. The system relies heavily upon the goodwill of the criminal bar, but the present crisis means that many are struggling to survive. Our working day doesn’t start when the court sits or end when it rises. We are losing our talented members who simply cannot cope with the attrition of endless hours for little pay.”

Earlier this month, Ms Rafferty and her colleagues formed a coalition with criminal legal aid solicitors to “campaign for the restoration of properly funded criminal legal aid and a halt in the degradation of the criminal justice system”.