£91 an hour? That's not enough, say barristers threatening to delay trials with fees boycott

Major criminal trials may be held up because of a work-to-rule by highly paid barristers, it emerged yesterday.

Among those threatened with delay is the trial of a teenager over the murder of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old shot dead in Liverpool last year on his way home from football practice.

Criminal barristers are bitterly opposed to Government attempts to rein in the £2.2billion a year bill to the taxpayer for legal aid.

As a result, they are refusing to take cases and are boycotting a new panel of lawyers approved to appear in ‘very high-cost criminal cases’.

The panel sets maximum pay for preparation work of £100 an hour for a junior barrister, £145 an hour for a Queen’s Counsel, and £476 an hour for the most senior barristers.

Although the rates would mean a junior barrister preparing a trial would earn fees of £4,000 for an ordinary working week, leaders of the Criminal Bar Association have described the rates as ‘derisory’.

Its chairman Peter Lodder, QC, said some barristers were being paid £91 an hour and added: ‘You might be better off buying a pair of pliers and working as a plumber.

‘This is our livelihood and most barristers are proud of the work they do. And, contrary to the public conception, these are not all fat cats – few barristers doing these high-profile cases earn a lot of money.’

The Rhys Jones case could be delayed because the defendant is understood to be without a senior barrister to represent him.

The boycott also raises the possibility of defendants in jail on remand being freed – and allowed the chance to abscond – because of rules limiting their time in custody.

At the heart of the dispute is the £2.2billion legal aid bill. One area ministers have targeted is fees in the highest-profile criminal cases.

Limits on fees were set up to stop lawyers earning close to £500,000 from relatively straightforward trials.

Around 120 such trials are staged each year at a cost of more than £100million.

One which was considered when the reforms were brought in was the six-week trial of Soham murderer Ian Huntley in 2003.

It cost £1.3million in defence bills. Huntley’s QC Michael Hubbard charged £466,645 and his solicitor, Roy Foreman, put in bills for £252,421.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: ‘We would not expect any cases to be delayed for lack of an appropriate advocate and solicitors have said they expect to be able to find counsel of the requisite experience to act in very high cost cases.’