Barristers warn they will act on their own to end unreasonable working hours if the judiciary doesn’t budge
updated on 27 February 2019
Crime barristers will take action on their own against unreasonable hours and overnight working if the judiciary fails to heed their concerns, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has warned.
Chris Henley hinted at friction between his body, which represents criminal law barristers, and the senior judiciary, saying that the CBA, together with the Bar Council, have “endeavoured to agree” parameters on working hours with the judiciary – apparently without success so far.
Writing in the CBA members’ newsletter, Henley provided examples of “the complete disregard for reasonable work/life boundaries we routinely tolerate,” such as the case in which a judge instructed prosecution and defence barristers to, respectively, submit and respond to a bad character application at short notice, disregarding the family commitments of both despite their protestations. The next morning, the judge changed his mind and decided that the application was unnecessary after all.
Insisting that barristers “can’t go on like this,” Henley warned: “We sincerely want to work together on this. But if we have to, we will come up with our own template for the hours we will reasonably work.”
