Nice work if you can get it
 

It appears there's a little trouble in Chambers these days, Crims are finding it hard work to get barristers to defend them as they are not prepared to work for a mere £91 per hour, how can we expect the poor lambs to make ends meet on such a pittance, they must be wondeing where the next roller is coming from:rolleyes:

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

If the Barristers are on that or even more the Judges must be on a great deal more, You'd think under such circumstances they'd at least be courteous enough to stay awake during a trial wouldn't you?
:p

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

I used to work at a Barrister's Chambers and the senior Counsel are on mega mega money! Interesting job too!

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

For that kind of cash I could be interested too:D

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

footballers at accrington stanley get that rate, at least
do they not ?

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

And that is why the competition for jobs in that area is so incredably fierce - you go to uni and then once you've got your degree you only have a 1 in 4 chance of getting into law school... which is another 10 grand then you have to spend a year shadowing - unpaid and extremely competative for places plus your self employed once you do get qualified so when you start off you've got to struggle for business. Then there is the moral issues - you could end up defending paedophiles, murderers, rapists. Help put away a big gang member and your putting you and your families life in danger etc etc etc. And plus if you not middle class or higher your never going to get in anyway.

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

The point made is invalid unless you can quote how much out of that goes to Admin staff, Profesional indemnity insurance, Profesional fees, travel, etc etc.

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

It's completely wrong to say barristers are only middle or upper class, I was working for one from a working class family the other week. He was joking about this issue saying he was once talking to a group of senior barristers who were complaining about their income being drastically decreased... from £350,000 to £250,000. Now you and I might find that a disgusting thing to complain about but in reality you live to your means, and a £100k decrease would be quite hard to cope with!

Also you don't necessarily have to work for criminals at all, so that isn't necessarily anything to worry about.

But of course you have to take into account the money you pay for chambers, accountants (unless you do your own books).

A copy of Civil Procedures costs £500. That's one book. Plus they have to drive up and down the country throughout the week.

It isn't a cheap profession to go into at all and the hard work you put into getting there deserves a large pay cheque in my opinion. I couldn't be a barrister because on my work experience I found it to be quite a lonely profession, but I guess that is what you sacrifice for that kind of money.

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Well at least they get off there fat butts in the morning instead of sleeping in like the crims.No good knocking anyone who can be bothered to work no matter what they earn.

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Just seen an item on Ceefax that lawyers working for people suing the NHS are charging £600 per hour, how can that be justified:eek:

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

The top law firms working on behalf of the NHS are top quality. The amount of work needed to match that kind of experience and knowledge would be immense. If you want to win you are going to need lawyers that are only focusing on your case and that comes at a price.

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Humm, well seeing our great footballers are overpaid, it seems that Barristers are cheap compared to them.
Jet pilots earn 40K ish are they overpaid?
If you put the work in to be a Barrister or for that case any high profession, then you should be paid well for it.
Anyone can be a Barrister, Doctor, CEO, Airline Pilot, Research Scientist etc, why should we knock these people.

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

I'm not knocking these people BG just saying that £600 per hour seems OTT to me, (by the way the people charging these fees are working against the NHS not for the NHS as blazey intimated, in other wards we are paying) Everyone has the rite to earn a decent wage, bu £600 an hour:(

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Jaysay, good point £600 Ph does seem a bit much

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Yes Jaysay I know what you were saying. Read my post again.

The NHS team of solicitors are the top law firms in that profession. Anyone going against them would need to put in a hell of a lot of work to compare to their experience, which means you'd have to dedicate all your time to that one case and it would be highly stressful. Therefore you'd have to be crazy to not charge top notch for it.

And as the court reviews all fee's during a court hearing anyway, it's not like they can overcharge. A full break down of the fee's is looked at to ensure that there isn't any overcharging going on anyway and the judge does take it quite seriously. In my short amount of experience i've seen the judge cut the fee's twice and mocked the solicitor whilst she was sat in the room for her evaluations, so they aren't afraid to make a stand against it.

The barristers themselves don't often overcharge unlike solicitors but in that same instance the barrister was charging three times the amount the barrister I was shadowing so the judge also cut that slightly, but not too much because it does seem to take into account experience. The barrister I was working for charged around £200 an hour in that instance and he had around 2yrs practising experience. If we bear in mind that any barrister taking on a case against the NHS would need a lot of experience, then my opinion would be that £600 an hour isn't so bad afterall?

I personally think it is justified, though if we were talking about the £12,000 fee's it costs for the year doing the BVC or LPC then maybe I'd be saying a different thing. Now THAT is something I would complain about!!!

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Now I know why you chose the law proffesion blazey, and why they have such a bad name

Re: Nice work if you can get it
 

Why is that then?

I only learned how much solicitors and barristers charged mid way through the year when I began researching law firms.

You speak almost as if it is shameful to have a law suit against the NHS, yet when the poor state of NHS hospitals is often in the media with people contracting all sorts of various deadly bugs you'd think one would be in support of enforcing the law against them.

Is it better to work for the NHS and help cover their back for neglectful practise or better to help the person suing them? Or is it a case of which one costs the government the most money?