Criminal barristers forced to skip lunch as many feel ground down by volume of unpaid work
updated on 19 March 2018
The pressures on criminal barristers are forcing many to regularly skip lunch or any other form of break, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association has said.
Angela Rafferty QC conducted a straw poll of colleagues, from senior QCs to junior tenants, finding that most feel obliged to not eat in order to carry out the unpaid tasks necessary to prop up a crumbing system, such as drafting admissions and conducting research on behalf of judges. As the Law Gazette reports, she found that “everyone is ground down and the latest fee reform will feel like another huge worry”.
In her weekly message to colleagues at the criminal Bar, Rafferty wrote: “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. 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.”
