£150 per hour - not enough?

[thebigfella]

They worked extremely hard to get to where they are today. I say fair play to them. They will pay a large amount back in tax anyway.

Balls.  They will have worked no harder than any doctor or chartered accountant/architect/engineer who would never dream of charging anything like that. (Never mind 'withdraw services' because you were 'only' getting this)

Rough calculation for Joe Bloggs QC/SC etc...

40 hrs/week, 52 wks/year

3 x Secretaries @ £12/hour
Office Building Rent @ £6.25/hour (£12k per annum)
Heat/Light/Office Sundries @ £10/hour
Other Expenses that I dont know about £10/hour

Total Expenses therefore £62.25/hour.

This leaves said c**t to complain that he is only earning the guts of £90/hour.  Or approx £185k per year before tax. Catch yourself on.  Have these t**sers got any grip on reality?

Who the fcuk works this a year? Plus are they not all self employed, so no paid holidays benefits etc.... Further I would be surprised if most are doing 40 hours per week, I'd say there is lots of reading/work brought home.

[tyrone girl]

A lot of our best barristers though take on our legal aid work - suppose a lot depends on relationships barristers have built up with the solicitors they get their work from as well.
If they are fit to turn down the £150 an hour they have plenty coming elsewhere. Though as Rois said - not every hour is chargeable nor is there a steady set wage of £150 per hour for a certain amount of hours a week.

[Franko]

They worked extremely hard to get to where they are today. I say fair play to them. They will pay a large amount back in tax anyway.

Balls.  They will have worked no harder than any doctor or chartered accountant/architect/engineer who would never dream of charging anything like that. (Never mind 'withdraw services' because you were 'only' getting this)

Rough calculation for Joe Bloggs QC/SC etc...

40 hrs/week, 52 wks/year

3 x Secretaries @ £12/hour
Office Building Rent @ £6.25/hour (£12k per annum)
Heat/Light/Office Sundries @ £10/hour
Other Expenses that I dont know about £10/hour

Total Expenses therefore £62.25/hour.

This leaves said c**t to complain that he is only earning the guts of £90/hour.  Or approx £185k per year before tax. Catch yourself on.  Have these t**sers got any grip on reality?

Who the fcuk works this a year? Plus are they not all self employed, so no paid holidays benefits etc.... Further I would be surprised if most are doing 40 hours per week, I'd say there is lots of reading/work brought home.

Plenty of people.  My standard hours are 42.5/week 48 weeks per year with bank hols extra.  Not far away from this when you factor in a few hours overtime.  I think those calculations are more than generous.

Tell you what, you tell me how many hours a week they work and I'll repeat it. 

Also, please bear in mind that the c**ts are COMPLAINING beacause they ONLY earn this.

[tyrone girl]

Speaking of hourly rates - Legal Services have just given me authority to instruct someone as long as their fee doesnt exceed £241 per hour  - not a barrister though

[delboy]

You have to remember that the law profession is like a cartel, they artifically control the numbers so that they can command a premium, a degree and a couple of years study hardly lifts them to the status of demigods and rates of pay they demand, but they get away with it.

Of course They aren't alone in this tactic lots of well paid proffesions do exactly the same thing, the doctors, dentists and vets etc all delibrately control membership to their exclusive clubs, for instance its no coincidence that dentists are well recompensed and that finding a dentist to treat you can be difficult, supply and demand. You could fill most university courses for dentistry many many times over with intelligent students, but what practising dentist would want that.

People rail against trade unionsim for the average working man but rarely is a word said about the various professional associations and socities that artifically create demand and concomitant added expense for their services or their collective bargaining to demand very large sums of money from the public purse for favourable contracts.   

[lynchbhoy]

its the solicitors who are the real con artists
the barristers dont always get that kind of money - mostly not from what I hear !
I also am lead to believe that more often than not, the barrister has to come after and effectively fight to get their money from a solicitor !
A friend of mine is a barrister and tells me there is one guy who had to write off €50k of debts as he couldnt get the money from solicitors and was barely making a living with what he did get... this apparantly is par for the course with them all ...
working for yourself is a hard enough business , but worse when you are not guaranteed to get your money !

[tyrone girl]

Doubt that very much - as the onus is by Law Society regulations on the solicitor to pay the Barrister once they have instructed them. Its actually the Barristers fee that is guaranteed - not the solicitors. For example in one such case - client didnt pay the Barristers £2300 fee - solicitors have to pay it out of their office account to the Barrister as they employed the Barrister - its their job to pay the Barrister whether they recover the fees or not. It can be long drawn out process though for Barristers waiting on their money if the case has to be taxed and/ or if the client doesnt pay up.

[EC Unique]

I think EC Unique should apologise for his ill advised post.

They pay £7k ish per year for the bar library.

What was ill advised about it?

[Master Yoda]

Heard on the radio this morning that some barristers are not taking legal aid cases anymore because the £150 per hour that they get paid by the tax payer is not enough. Nice work if you can get it.

I don't see what your issue is, you stated they are not taking "your money"  as they can get more lucrative work elsewhere. Why should they work for less than they can get elsewhere, I'm sure you wouldn't. Why don't you post of the full story from BBC and then we'll discuss the real issues and implications of this story.

Also would you be giving out if it was nurse moving from the NHS to private healthcare for higher rates?

Where did I state this big fella?

[brokencrossbar1]

Doubt that very much - as the onus is by Law Society regulations on the solicitor to pay the Barrister once they have instructed them. Its actually the Barristers fee that is guaranteed - not the solicitors. For example in one such case - client didnt pay the Barristers £2300 fee - solicitors have to pay it out of their office account to the Barrister as they employed the Barrister - its their job to pay the Barrister whether they recover the fees or not. It can be long drawn out process though for Barristers waiting on their money if the case has to be taxed and/ or if the client doesnt pay up.

That is the point LB is making.  It is the responsibility of the solicitor to pay the barrister.  Most of the time that happens fairly quickly but not always.  It is not beyond the realms of possibiltiy that the solicitors office will allow a build up of barristers fees to sit in the client account and not disburse them out to the barristers apart from on a piecemeal basis, say on a monthly basis.  You could have a barristers fees sitting in an account from the first of the month to the end of the month accumulating interest for the solicitor.  if there are wenough of them, and in some firms there would be, this could run to 6 figure sums.  A nice little earner for any soliicitor if done right.  Not that that would happen.

[tyrone girl]

I can only speak for in here and the minute we get paid for any case the Barristers fee goes directly to them in one lump sum. We would never pay them in installments and if it became clear that the client wasnt going to pay us we would pay the barrister.
I know that in here the Law Soceity do a check every so often on the accounts and different ledgers etc would be checked to see when money was paid in and when it left - suppose this is to check for that very thing. Wouldnt be overly easy to get away with sitting with money in client account that cant be accounted for

[Franko]

Chasing money/not getting paid is not unique to barristers.

[Rois]

Chasing money/not getting paid is not unique to barristers.

Nor is charging a market rate for the services you provide. 

And any doctor/chartered accountant/architect, etc would charge whatever the hell they could get away with.

Agreed - add to that plumber, mechanic, electrician or any other self-employed person.  It's a characteristic of a market and will correct itself if it's too high. 

[longrunsthefox]

 I think a lot of people' s annoyance is jealousy. I wouldn't mind getting that type of money   

[delboy]

Chasing money/not getting paid is not unique to barristers.

Nor is charging a market rate for the services you provide. 

And any doctor/chartered accountant/architect, etc would charge whatever the hell they could get away with.

Agreed - add to that plumber, mechanic, electrician or any other self-employed person.  It's a characteristic of a market and will correct itself if it's too high.

But its a closed and controlled market so markets force don't apply to it, hence them turning their nose up at £150 an hour, for doing work that isn't exactly rocket science.