“Substantial” pay rise for some criminal legal aid lawyers

The Lord Chancellor announced in January that from Summer 2024, criminal legal aid solicitors working in police stations and youth courts will receive a pay increase to reflect the importance and complexity of their work.

The 2021 Criminal Legal Aid Review found that existing police station and Youth Court fee schemes are outdated and no longer reflect the complexity of the work carried out by today’s legal profession, creating unfairness and disincentivising legal practitioners from taking on more complicated cases.

Under the current Court fee schemes, there is no accounting for the complexity of cases, meaning that a solicitor spending 30 minutes on a shoplifting case and five hours on a murder trial would likely receive the same fixed fee for both jobs.

In addition, the fee system itself is outdated, as it involves solicitors navigating over two hundred different fees across England and Wales, each representing a different police station location with the pay-out for neighbouring stations varying widely.

This means solicitors can receive vastly different amounts in similar areas for working on similar cases.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) will invest £16 million to increase fees for solicitors working in police stations, while £5.1 million has been allocated to increase the pay for solicitors taking on Youth Court legal aid work for the most serious offences by £548 per case.

This will help reflect the complexity of the work done in the Youth Court which can deal with murder and sexual assault trials.

These fee increases aim to encourage solicitor firms to specialise in this area to better serve the children and teenagers they represent.

If you are unsure how these changes affect you or your practice or would like advice, please speak to our team.