Lawyers close courts with walk-out over legal aid cuts

ITV News cameraman Jim Dutton has tweeted this photograph from outside the Houses of Parliament where barristers and lawyers are staging a second walk out of courts in England and Wales over legal aid cuts

ITV News cameraman Jim Dutton is at a demonstration where barristers are protesting over legal aid cuts.

Read: Courts 'effectively inoperable' due to nationwide walk out

Britain has "one of the most expensive legal aid systems" in the world and the Government has "no choice" but to make cuts if it is to deal with deficit left by the 2008 crash, a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said.

Speaking ahead of a series of walk outs by barristers over cuts, the spokeswoman said:

Courts across England and Wales are expected to close as barristers strike over cuts to legal aid.

Proceedings at major crown courts in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, among others, are expected to be suspended while hundreds of lawyers march on Westminster in protest at the Government reforms.

This is the second protest over the Justice Secretary's decision to continue with £220 million of cuts from the legal aid budget by 2018/19.

Nigel Lithman, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), said: "If these cuts are not addressed, then the British justice system, which is held in such high esteem around the world, will cease to exist as we know it and the British public can no longer expect true justice to be delivered.

"It is simply expected that the criminal Bar will accept cuts unparalleled in any other sector of the wider community."

Read: Courts 'effectively inoperable' due to nationwide walk out