The report of the Legal Aid Board for 1999-2000 established that 16.4 per cent of the total payments for family legal aid went to barristers, and that 83.6 per cent went to solicitors whose fees have been increased by between 10 per cent and 25 per cent, as announced by the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor. As I understand it, this scheme is based on a model. The model is based on data collected prior to 1996, and uplifted for inflation. The Lord Chancellor's stated aim is to achieve a 5 per cent reduction on payments currently made to barristers. Very junior barristers will suffer no reduction and very possibly will achieve an increase for their work in simple cases.
Solicitors are to have their rates increased.
In those circumstances, it is only too obvious that senior junior barristers will suffer a reduction of more than 5 per cent in their income. Some senior junior barristers are likely to find that they suffer a reduction of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent in their gross income. No one knows what the current level of payments is for a case because the model is out of date. Since then, the amount of preparatory documents required in family cases has undergone a wholesale change, and increase, in accordance with the President of the Family Division's practice direction. The savings which are to be made by implementation of this scheme relate only to 16.4 per cent of the total payments.