The news that the Criminal Bar Association's members have voted to end their ongoing strike action will come as very welcome news.
More funding for a profession which has seen itself squeezed painfully over recent years is overdue. It would be tempting but wrong to see this as a special pleading; in reality, many barristers - and especially the most junior ones - have found it almost impossible to survive on the fees the government has been paying.
What this long-running saga has demonstrated and, unfortunately, exacerbated, is the huge pressure on the criminal courts, with a current backlog of some 60,000 crown court cases.
At ACSO, civil justice is our main concern, and there the figures are just as wretched. While the exact number of backlogged civil cases is unknown, the time taken for them to be heard is recorded. Data from April to July 2022 shows that multi and fast-track claims are taking longer than ever to reach courts, with the current wait around 75 weeks. Small claims, meanwhile, are taking more than 50 weeks to get to court.
As Gladstone once said, "Access to justice delayed is access to justice denied." The new Lord Chancellor, Brandon Lewis MP, needs now to turn his attention to the backlogs and set out how he intends to tackle them, and by when.
The challenges that many lawyers face are considerable. Cases not concluding means a major impact on cashflow. Again, dealing with this shouldn't be seen as special pleading. If enough firms deem it impossible to continue in the current environment, consumers will not be able to get the representation they need.
Add to this factors such as many fixed recoverable costs having not been uplifted in more than a decade, and it's a very challenging mix.
So it's good news that the criminal barristers are going back to work. But the justice system as a whole is creaking badly and action is overdue.