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Barristers across England and Wales are struggling to make ends meet after a cyber attack on the Legal Aid Agency has left many without a regular income, raising concerns about the future of publicly funded legal representation.
Civil barristers who work in areas such as family law, housing and immigration told the Financial Times that they and colleagues had been left unable to pay bills and are concerned that there is “no end in sight” as they wait for the LAA to overhaul its systems.
“Halfway through this month I couldn’t make the rent, I had to ask my partner to cover my part,” said one immigration barrister. “It’s going to ultimately affect vulnerable people . . . if people doing this job have to leave because of this pressure, it’s going to compound the issues with legal aid that already exist.”
The Ministry of Justice said in May that the LAA, which provides funding and advice to people in England and Wales facing civil and criminal legal problems, had been hacked. The disruption has meant that barristers cannot invoice for work and get paid, leading to shortfalls for practices heavily funded by legal aid cases.
While the LAA has put in place a contingency plan for paying barristers based on an average of their previous three months’ billing, many said they did not want to use it in case they would be on the hook for clawbacks or inflated tax bills in the future.
The cyber criminals stole information relating to legal aid applicants, including contact details and addresses, as well as financial information dating back to 2010.
The government has obtained an injunction preventing the disclosure or publication of the data, which was stolen by a “known hacking group”, a London court heard last month. The group was not named in the documents to prevent it receiving publicity.
Many barristers, the majority of whom are self-employed, have VAT and tax payments due this month, adding to their concerns.
“The stress that this has caused is absolutely incredible,” said Barbara Mills KC, chair of the Bar Council, who said that she had received late-night emails from barristers concerned about paying their mortgages.
“I can’t even find the words to describe the level of crisis going on . . . it’s falling on to a workforce already bowed by the workload,” Mills added.
The MoJ declined to comment on when the system would be back up and running. However, a number of barristers said that they had been told by industry bodies to expect the situation to continue until the end of the year.
The government announced the first major funding increase in legal aid rates for housing and immigration in nearly 30 years this month, increasing rates by as much as 42 per cent. The rises are part of the government’s attempt to tackle the justice crisis, with a backlog of nearly 77,000 criminal cases in the crown courts.
“We have introduced enhanced contingency measures to streamline legal aid applications, ensure people are represented and to keep the system running . . . and continue to work as quickly as possible to restore our online system,” said a spokesperson for the MoJ.
