Criminal Legal Aid cuts
The FT carries a letter from Rick Pratt, QC, and other signatories who say that they have sought to emphasise to Chris Grayling that the fee cuts proposed to criminal practitioners will have the effect of disintegrating an already demoralised criminal Bar, and that they have demonstrated that the bright and promising lawyers of the future are turning their backs on practising criminal law. They point out that the work of criminal barristers, particularly those involved in the most complex cases, has as its aim the conviction of those guilty of sometimes dreadful crime and the acquittal of those wrongly accused and that it is work that lies at the core of the rule of law. They conclude that the effect of the proposed cuts is to follow a well-established trend of making the criminal lawyer the poor relation of the legal fraternity.
