Rhean Bailey

Principal at Goldman Bailey Solicitors, criminal defence and immigration specialists. Sporadic Twitter user

[The Law Society @TheLawSociety]

📈 "There simply aren't the resources to deal with the amount of work that we have.”

Law Society vice president Richard Atkinson speaks to @BBCRadioKent about the unprecedented backlog in our criminal courts.

🎧 Listen to Richard from 2:12:00.

https://t.co/bCSv4xGkmL

[John Hyde @JohnHyde1982]

Can't believe this even needs saying, but judges shouldn't be members of a club which excludes women. #garrickclub
https://t.co/xNuFc0VEjh

[JCWI (Follow us on Bluesky @jcwi-uk.bsky.social) @JCWI_UK]

URGENT RWANDA NOTICE 🚨

We have received reports that the Home Office are calling people to offer ‘voluntary departure’ to Rwanda.

You DO NOT have to say yes.

DO NOT respond until you have legal advice

If you get a call, we recommend to 👇🏾

[APPEAL (Centre for Criminal Appeals) @APPEALcharity_]

This important petition from @michael73798531 demanding reimbursement for wrongly convicted prisoners charged "bed and board" is nearly at 50,000 signatures.

Please sign and share:

https://t.co/IoIP4KwLmS

[Idle Courts @CourtsIdle]

This is exactly what those of us who do the job have feared. It doesn’t matter how hard we, the police, the Courts or Probation work, there are more cases than we can handle. There’s not the capacity in people, buildings or prisons to cope. Truly broken.

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

Crown Court case backlog now 66468, up from 65522 the previous month. Magistrates cases now stand at 378289, up from 375577. (note: receipts are significantly higher in both cases)

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

This is devastating.

We have record backlogs in the criminal courts, in particular in cases involving Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO).

There is already a severe shortage of RASSO prosecutors, causing further delays.

And nearly *two thirds* are intending to quit.

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

'Crisis' in barrister numbers as average wait for rape victims exceeds five years | Politics News | Sky News
The Criminal Bar Association says barristers are committed to tackling the backlog of cases, but they are walking away from lists due to low pay and the impact on their mental health - and demanding government action.
https://t.co/1cdstYLRtN

[Catherine Baksi @legalhackette]

Urgent calls to fix the “state-sanctioned psychological harm being caused,” by “inhumane” imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences, 12 years after they were scrapped -- in @lawsocgazette
https://t.co/xSsj5fmsv6

[Public Law Project @publiclawprojct]

"It is concerning that MoJ continues to lack an understanding of whether those eligible for legal aid can access it."

As PLP research has shown, access to legal aid is worsening.

Now @NAOorguk has found that cuts to legal aid have not delivered value for money 👇

[Tristan Kirk @kirkkorner]

Bristol woman, 57, prosecuted for not paying for a TV Licence

"I have no family or friends...my only lifeline is a TV"

Disabled, & depressed after her daughter's death
Struggles with opening letters

TV Licensing won't have read this as she was convicted #SingleJusticeProcedure

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

https://t.co/o5hEtTuJt6

[The Law Society @TheLawSociety]

🚨‼️ NEWS: High Court rules in the Law Society’s favour following our judicial review against the government.

The judgment confirmed the government’s decision-making on criminal legal aid funding was irrational.

We now urge the current Lord Chancellor, @AlexChalkChelt to safeguard the future of criminal legal aid and meet the key recommendation of the Bellamy report, a 15% legal aid rates rise.

The government must also commit to ensuring that criminal legal aid rates become and remain economically viable in the long term.

Our president Nick Emmerson said: “We are delighted the High Court has recognised that then-Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab’s decision was irrational.

“It must be remembered that Lord Bellamy made that recommendation more than two years ago and said it was the bare minimum needed.

"Reversing Raab’s irrational decision would demonstrate the government is serious about ensuring that we have a criminal justice system worthy of the name.

“We are keen to work with the Lord Chancellor to help take the necessary steps to safeguard the future of this crucial profession.”

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

Law Society High Court victory: Government must rethink criminal legal aid funding before system collapses

The Law Society has urged the Lord Chancellor to safeguard the future of criminal legal aid following today’s victory in the High Court.

The Society took the government to court after it failed to increase criminal defence solicitors’ legal aid rates by the bare minimum 15%, as recommended by the independent review of criminal legal aid.

Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Jay today (31 January) ruled that the decisions on CLAIR were irrational and that the Lord Chancellor made insufficient enquiries as to the state of the criminal legal aid sector before making them.

The Court observed that it had been presented with an “impressive, compelling, body of evidence” which showed “the system is slowly coming apart at the seams”. “Unless there are significant injections of funding in the relatively near future, any prediction along the lines that the system will arrive in due course at a point of collapse is not overly pessimistic.”

“We are delighted the High Court has recognised that then Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab’s decision was irrational,” said Law Society of England and Wales president Nick Emmerson.

“We may have won the court battle but it’s the public who will lose out in custody suites and courtrooms across the country unless the government takes immediate action to stop the exodus of duty solicitors from the profession.

1,400 duty solicitors have left since 2017 because the work is not financially viable.

We are already seeing that there simply aren’t enough solicitors to represent suspects at police stations and magistrates’ courts day and night across the country. This situation will only get worse with potentially dangerous consequences for society.

The imbalance between the defence and the prosecution will continue to grow and public trust in the criminal justice system will continue to fail.”

The Law Society now wants the government to ensure that the key recommendation of the independent review – a 15% legal aid rates’ rise – is implemented for solicitors as soon as possible. They must also commit to ensuring that criminal legal aid rates become and remain economically viable in the long term.

“It must be remembered that Lord Bellamy made that recommendation more than two years ago and said it was the bare minimum needed,” added Nick Emmerson.

“Reversing Raab’s irrational decision would be an important step to demonstrate the government is serious about ensuring that we may once again have a criminal justice system worthy of the name. A system which works effectively and efficiently needs to attract and retain lawyers on both sides to ensure balance between defence and prosecution.

We are keen to work with the Lord Chancellor to help take the necessary steps to safeguard the future of this crucial profession.”

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

The government’s decision to commission an independent review into criminal legal aid and then ignore its urgent recommendations has been ruled unlawful.

The High Court recognises a justice system “coming apart at the seams,” which “depends to an unacceptable degree on the goodwill and generosity of spirit of those working within it.”

[Rhean Bailey @GBSolicitors]

As a now sole principal of firm specialising in criminal defence, easily understand how things can get this bad, but still heartbreaking to read. Hope they're getting support. And that the government starts to recognise the collapse happening -now- in the criminal defence sector.

[Adam Wagner KC @AdamWagner1]

The Interested Parties along with the Law Society presented a large body of evidence from criminal defence solicitors about the conditions they are now working under due to chronic, long term underfunding of the system. Much of it was very distressing, even to the point that the Court anonymised some evidence.

[Adam Wagner KC @AdamWagner1]

Together with the Law Society, the CLSA and the LCCSA provided the Court with a large number of witness statements from solicitors up and down the country, at every level of seniority, describing the relentless, physically demanding and emotionally draining nature of criminal defence work and the chronic underfunding which has led to a crisis in the retention of solicitors who are leaving in their droves for better pay and conditions that can be found elsewhere.

The Government response to the Criminal Legal Aid Review utterly failed to grasp the extent of the crisis. Despite the review recommending a 15% increase to solicitors fees as “no more than a minimum starting point”, it increased fees by only 9% with a further 2% promised this year.

The ruling today confirms that the Government response to the review was so flawed as to be unlawful and irrational.

In today’s ruling Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Jay described the evidence we submitted from our members alongside the Law Society as “a mass of convergent evidence from honest, professional people working up and down the country”, which is “cogent”, “impressive” and “compelling”, and which “brings home [that] women and men working up and down the country at all hours of the day and night, in difficult and stressful circumstances, carrying out an essential service which depends to a large extent on their goodwill and sense of public duty”.

[Audrey Ludwig MBE @AudreySuffolk]

@SuffolkLawCen needs a new housing legal aid supervisor as without one, #Suffolk is a housing legal advice desert again. Please promote this to anyone looking for a new challenge in a lovely county https://t.co/G0omK4r9Sq

[Rhean Bailey @GBSolicitors]

@CrimeLineLaw That headline on https://t.co/DF9648TJrU pretty misleading... and yes, yet another consultation to delay yet another decision is absolutely what we need to save criminal defence lawyers🙄

[Rhean Bailey @GBSolicitors]

@CraftJudge Common theme now - increasingly difficult to find psychiatrists with any will / capacity to prepare reports in legal aid cases. And then, have to fight LAA to get funding ...