‘System overload: a report into family legal aid’ - based on interviews with 100 family barristers - examines the changing conditions of publicly funded work for family legal aid barristers, painting a ‘stark and vivid picture’ of the impact the erosion of fees has had over the last 30 years.
Key findings:
- Remuneration is now insufficient to support family barristers in maintaining a sustainable legal aid practice
- Working conditions and ways of working in the system are intolerable, and the fee schemes do not reflect the changing nature of work
- The financial and systemic pressures on family barristers are having a detrimental effect on their wellbeing
