- Turnover of the Family Bar has been static for three years
- By Work Of the Family Bar Report Published On Behalf Of the FLBA
- Family Law week (UK)
- 10/03/2009 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: Daveyone ( 29 articles in 2009 )
The overall turnover of the Family Bar has remained static for the last three years. This is just one of the many findings revealed in a report published on 9 March called The Work of the Family Bar.
The Report is the result of a research project commissioned by the FLBA and carried out by the King’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy. The research involved a significant number of barristers and their clerks and data was gathered through surveys of (i) chambers where any family work is undertaken, (ii) barristers who undertook any family work (whether publicly funded or privately paid) in the year to 30 August 2008 and (iii) all family work completed by barristers in England and Wales in a random week. This was known as the ‘Week-At-A-Glance’.
Some of the other key findings are as follows:
* the profession is specialised: three quarters of family barristers spend more than 75% of their time undertaking family work
* case can be highly complex. For example, ten per cent of cases involve five or more experts, and 5% of cases involve five or more expert disciplines and in one in twelve cases, require their own medical or other expert research using text books and/or peer reviewed journals
* half of family barristers work more than 46 hours in a given week, with a quarter working more than 56 hours, one in twenty working more than 70 hours, and one per cent working more than 83 hours with only 8% saying holidays are never disrupted
* a quarter of family barristers have taxable profits lower than £44,000 a year from their practice at the Bar, median taxable profits are in the region of £66,000 a year, and a quarter have taxable profits of more than £93,000
* a quarter of practising family barristers receive less than £12,500 a year from family legal aid, half less than £39,000 and a quarter more than £65,500
* a quarter of family barristers have refused at least one legal aid case that they were asked to take on in the last year solely because of the fee – predominantly senior practitioners. Cases refused have mostly been in the fields of ancillary relief and private law children matters.
* in the event of no changes to the legal aid system, a quarter of family barristers are intending to change the way that they practice – mostly to reduce their reliance on legal aid. However in the event of across the board cuts of around 13% - 14% (proposed at the time of survey), over 80% of barristers indicated their intention to change their practices. These are predominantly senior practitioners. This is predominantly, for those practitioners who still do the work, to stop doing ancillary relief and private law children work, but barristers have indicated that in the event of cuts, they will stop doing public law work as well. For example, forty per cent of barristers over 16 years call intend to stop totally or reduce greatly the amount of legally aided public law final hearings that they undertake.
You can also see additional comment about the report by Lucy Reed on her blog, Pink Tape, and on the Family Law Week blog on a meeting of family barristers to discuss its findings.
Comments:
* I wonder if the announcement that the press will be allowed in Family Law Courts from 1st April 2009 (nothing significant in that date I hope) will make any difference to the above statement, I believe this corrupt gravey train is about to hit the buffers and the lid put on the legal aid fund to stop the so called professionals plundering it any longer!!
Daveyone 10/03/2009 06:50:41
The Report is the result of a research project commissioned by the FLBA and carried out by the King’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy. The research involved a significant number of barristers and their clerks and data was gathered through surveys of (i) chambers where any family work is undertaken, (ii) barristers who undertook any family work (whether publicly funded or privately paid) in the year to 30 August 2008 and (iii) all family work completed by barristers in England and Wales in a random week. This was known as the ‘Week-At-A-Glance’.
Some of the other key findings are as follows:
* the profession is specialised: three quarters of family barristers spend more than 75% of their time undertaking family work
* case can be highly complex. For example, ten per cent of cases involve five or more experts, and 5% of cases involve five or more expert disciplines and in one in twelve cases, require their own medical or other expert research using text books and/or peer reviewed journals
* half of family barristers work more than 46 hours in a given week, with a quarter working more than 56 hours, one in twenty working more than 70 hours, and one per cent working more than 83 hours with only 8% saying holidays are never disrupted
* a quarter of family barristers have taxable profits lower than £44,000 a year from their practice at the Bar, median taxable profits are in the region of £66,000 a year, and a quarter have taxable profits of more than £93,000
* a quarter of practising family barristers receive less than £12,500 a year from family legal aid, half less than £39,000 and a quarter more than £65,500
* a quarter of family barristers have refused at least one legal aid case that they were asked to take on in the last year solely because of the fee – predominantly senior practitioners. Cases refused have mostly been in the fields of ancillary relief and private law children matters.
* in the event of no changes to the legal aid system, a quarter of family barristers are intending to change the way that they practice – mostly to reduce their reliance on legal aid. However in the event of across the board cuts of around 13% - 14% (proposed at the time of survey), over 80% of barristers indicated their intention to change their practices. These are predominantly senior practitioners. This is predominantly, for those practitioners who still do the work, to stop doing ancillary relief and private law children work, but barristers have indicated that in the event of cuts, they will stop doing public law work as well. For example, forty per cent of barristers over 16 years call intend to stop totally or reduce greatly the amount of legally aided public law final hearings that they undertake.
You can also see additional comment about the report by Lucy Reed on her blog, Pink Tape, and on the Family Law Week blog on a meeting of family barristers to discuss its findings.
Comments:
* I wonder if the announcement that the press will be allowed in Family Law Courts from 1st April 2009 (nothing significant in that date I hope) will make any difference to the above statement, I believe this corrupt gravey train is about to hit the buffers and the lid put on the legal aid fund to stop the so called professionals plundering it any longer!!
Daveyone 10/03/2009 06:50:41
Source: https://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed33305
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