Solicitors set for walkout

Justice will grind to a halt in Telford next week when criminal defence solicitors go on "strike" in protest at nationwide cost-cutting plans by the Government.

Lawyers will walk out from Telford Magistrates Court on Wednesday to attend a "training day" in Birmingham. And they are threatening further, escalating industrial action unless the Government backs down.

Thousands of lawyers all over England and Wales, members of the Criminal Defence Solicitors Union, are furious at plans to make them tender for legal aid work, a move that will see firms bidding for the contract to operate in an area.

They claim the reforms will result in "irreparable damage" to the UK's justice system, a loss of access to justice for the most vulnerable in society and the closure of many high street solicitors.

Roger Peach, president of the union, said he had never seen such anger among his colleagues.

Mr Peach said: "This has been like a volcano where the anger of defence solicitors has been bubbling away and there is massive well of resentment. The criminal defence system is in a fragile state and it is tottering."

Simon Rollason, the union's Telford co-ordinator, said a week of action would start on Monday with a rally in London addressed by politicians, lawyers and public figures including impressionist Rory Bremner.

That would be followed by a conference in Birmingham on Wednesday, likely to be attended by most of Telford's criminal defence solicitors.

"Officially, we are not allowed to go on strike so we are calling this a training day. But, effectively, it is industrial action and things will grind to a halt in Telford Magistrates Court that afternoon."

Mr Rollason added: "There is a lot of spin about fat cat lawyers but that's certainly not the case for the solicitors in Telford who attend the town's police station 365 days a year to represent people. We are getting just under £60 an hour - not much different to a mechanic at a tyre-fitters.

"We have not seen an increase in hourly rates since the early 1990s and margins are getting tighter.

"Large firms in Telford are now seriously thinking about pulling out of crime work altogether."

By Peter Johnson