Long delays to trials could prompt the public to “take the law into their own hands”, the incoming head of criminal law barristers warns. @TheCriminalBar Chair #MaryPrior KC

The new chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association is “staggered” by the move, which, she argues, justice ministers made without consulting specialist lawyers. Reducing sitting days will “inevitably” increase delays to trials and pile yet more misery on victims and witnesses, she says; as a result, it will increase the already rising number of alleged victims who give up as they lose faith in the system.

“It can take four years for a person to be charged with a serious criminal offence,” says Prior, “and two years longer than that to get closure with a jury verdict.” She notes that defendants on bail already have to wait 12 to 18 months for a trial, and Prior predicts that now they will be forced to wait even longer.

In a 34-year career, the KC has witnessed the positive effect on victims and acquitted defendants of closure at the end of trials and the devastating impact of repeated delays. She describes the criminal Bar as “the men and women who have to face the people who have come to court expecting to give evidence. We have to apologise and tell them that they need to come back in 12 to 18 months’ time. We see the devastation and anguish that news causes and we try to persuade people not to give up and walk away from the trial process.”

Without “massive investment” across the criminal justice system — from the police to the courts, lawyers, probation service and prisons — there is the possibility that the public will increasingly turn to vigilante justice. “If people believe that when a crime has been committed it’s pointless going to the police because nothing will happen for years on end, people will begin to take law into their own hands,” she says, adding: “I’m actually scared about what’s going to happen.”

Prior is also concerned about the shortage of specialist criminal barristers, who she says are “leaving in droves” because of long hours, stressful work and poor pay. In 2022, criminal defence barristers voted narrowly to end a long-running strike and accept a 15 per cent rise in legal aid rates, which had been unchanged for 20 years.

Despite that pay boost, the fees are said still to be 27 per cent lower in real terms that they were two decades ago, a disparity that Prior says is forcing many criminal barristers to shift to more lucrative areas of work.

Last year, 1,500 criminal trials were stalled because there was no advocate to prosecute or defend. Prior, who was called to the Bar in 1990, says that without annual fee increases, more barristers will walk away. She also warns of the possibility of further strike action, if cuts follow the government’s forthcoming budget review and delayed report from the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, chaired by the former judge, Deborah Taylor.

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