Chairman's Blog

With the words “Challenging and Interesting Year ahead” ringing in my ears I left the AGM / Conference on 23rd of October wondering quite what I had taken on

Of course I should have known, I have been a Committee Member and latterly Vice Chair long enough to see the work done by my predecessors.

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Last Friday saw the AGM and the first joint CLSA / Criminal Bar Association conference in Manchester.

Our speakers included Paul Mendelle QC (Chair of the CBA), Des Hudson (Chief Exec of the Law Society), Julian Young (Solicitor and HCA) and Richard Marks QC (Leader of the Northern Circuit).

I was elected to succeed Joy as Chair and intend to carry on her good work.

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The fight against BVT continues

Can I firstly say I was staggered and proud not only of the number of BVT responses from members but the quality. There were many truly well argued and cogent responses.

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BVT or Bust?

 There are three letters on everybody's lips BVT ; to say the consultation which arrived at the beginning of April was a shock is to put it mildly. The profession had been reassured by Sir Michaels Bichard's remarks that any scheme would be piloted and properly evaluated.

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Firstly apologies for the gap between Blogs

I was actually on holiday for the first two weeks in Feb and since I came back my feet haven't touched the ground. We are all, from paralegals to senior partners, working so long and hard I feel it is unsustainable. Everyone I speak to says we are working harder for less money, which is not good with an aging profession.

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A belated happy New Year to you all

As the recession deepens we appear to be in the only growth industry  - crime; certainly the work has started picking up in London and I hope for the sake of your businesses if not society that the picture is the same nationwide.

We are now a year in for police station fixed fees and the Litigators graduated Fee.

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Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat; please put a penny in the defence lawyer’s hat!

This is unlikely I feel in the coming year despite the fact that the government (there is no more money) seem to have found/borrowed billions to prop up such deserving causes as the financial institutions and the car industry.

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Chair’s Blog 27th November 2008

Your committee meet this Friday and for the first time I won't be there. Rod Warren and I are off to Maastricht at the invitation of Ed Cape to join an international conference on legal aid. I will be providing a full report on this in due course.

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Since my last blog there have been some significant developments in the world of Criminal Defence.

Friday 24^th October saw the news break of  new levels of pay in the current VHCC scheme; although these include increases for solicitor panel members the main driving force was to entice those starving silks back into contracted work.

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Association representatives meet with the LSC and OCJR to discuss virtual courts

Many thanks to all of you who attended the conference; the feedback was really positive and numbers were considerably up on last year. There will be a criminal bulletin with a report on the conference shortly but here are a few edited highlights.

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