Head of Trinity Chambers' Criminal and Regulatory Groups, Caroline Goodwin Q.C. features in ChronicleLive commenting on the recent "no returns" action by criminal barristers.
As announced previously, members of Trinity's Criminal team support the Criminal Bar Association's action on fees and have agreed not to accept returns in AGFS defence cases from 11th April 2022. Trinity's criminal barristers will still attend hearings in cases in which they are instructed, however they will not conduct cases that are returned to them because the instructed barrister is unavailable.
As the former Chair of the Criminal Bar Association in 2019/2020, Caroline Goodwin Q.C. has been heavily involved in discussions with the Ministry of Justice regarding the challenges the Criminal Justice system faced, including the significant backlog of Crown Court trials as well as fees.
Commenting on the action in the ChronicleLive article that can be found here, Caroline Goodwin Q.C. said:
"Over a long period of time, the Government has slashed funding in the criminal justice system. The junior bar is poorly paid for the work they do; they slashed the police; they slashed the Crown Prosecution Service; they cut sitting days in courts.
"All those chickens have come home to roost now. We've got a criminal justice system that is cracking at the seams, where it cannot cope with the number of cases in the pipeline waiting to be tried."
For any clients with concerns regarding particular cases, please do not hesitate to contact a member of Trinity's Criminal Clerking whose details can be found here.