Although I’ve only been in court for a few Skype hearings these past 3 weeks, I still find that I’m working a full-time week preparing ongoing cases, drafting documents etc. The stuff that we don’t get paid a penny for. Really rams home how much we are expected to do for free.

Difficult at times like this to avoid the resentment that many at the criminal Bar are being excluded from the government help being offered to the self-employed.

Working full-time for free to plug the holes the government has deliberately made in the criminal justice system.

As with all such complaints, I caveat this heavily with the acknowledgment that I chose this career, and it is a privilege. And it should go without saying that others have it much, much worse.

But I do think this is yet another marker of the contempt in which those in the justice system are held by the govt. Criminal barristers chambers risk widespread collapse, and the govt doesn’t care.

Even though without us, there’s nobody to defend or prosecute criminal cases.