Now Is the summer/autumn/winter of our discontent

As a barrister once said to a judge who remarked that he was” non the wiser” after hearing the submission made…..
“M’lud, you may be non the wiser, but you are now certainly better informed

 

No I think he used to call himself a football manager

 

No, I said people who swing between voting Tory and Labour are lacking the most basic understanding of politics and easily fooled by the lies told at election time. The Tories NEVER change their spots.

Maybe you could post up your rough TURNOVER so we can get al feisty about how much plumbers earn.

One of my cousins is a legal aid Barrister, he's in his 60's and he's always struggled to make a half decent living.

 

You don’t think I’m charging enough?

 

I bet car parking fees for many are more than your diesel bill, presumably this isn’t a major expense in your business?

 

Well it’s WELL under the threshold for VAT and that’s 80k. It’s been a bit of an odd couple of years with covid etc, but I’d say a turnover of about 50k a year would be a fair average.

 

So you get your customers to buy their parts?
Seriously though, I reckon you aren't charging enough. I get it, I didn't either when I was a (half-arsed) Dub garage... Then I more than doubled my rates and got more work - go figure.

 

Every single time that I’ve ever had any legal work done I’ve been charged for everything. They do you a photocopy. You pay. They use a paper clip. You pay. My experience of the legal profession is that they do absolutely nothing for free. I’m pretty sure if a barrister incurred costs, the client pays. In fact my mates a black cab driver, he took a barrister to a meeting on a Sunday, the bill was £400 and I know that he had to give they guy receipts for the journey so he could bill it. Cos my mate joked that he’d happily run the guy around all day for that money.

 

Thank you. Far better put than I could have done. I only had a little insight to this as my son did law at Uni and initially wanted to go down the barrister route. He soon changed his mind when he saw the costs involved. Case closed m'lud

 

You simply read the word "barrister" and went off on one because a few barristers make a killing. You failed to even look to see it was legal aid barristers who certainly do not. Or you just (and still are) refusing to see the difference.
But yes to Solicitors, my dealing with them have shown them to be lazy, disorganised and charge a flipping fortune for it.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/aug/22/why-criminal-barristers-striking-legal-aid-funding
Read and understand ....

 

It’s actually becoming a real issue in my business. As soon as a customer finds out what part is required, they Google it. The days of putting any meaningful mark up on parts is over. In fact my friend and his father had a plumbing shop for thirty years and it closed at Christmas for exactly this reason. Customers won’t pay over the price they see on the internet. It’s one of the reasons that the likes of British Gas try to sign people up to service plans, to hide the true cost of the repair.

This is a genuine example that happened to me. A guy called my up and said his boiler wasn’t working and it had a blue flashing light. I asked him what boiler it was and he didn’t know. I attended the property and diagnosed a faulty fan. Before I’d even got the case on he wandered in with an iPad and told me the fans are xyz price. Two hours before he didn’t even know the make of his boiler. Now he knows what part it is and how mush he was prepared to pay for it. I even have customers buying boilers off of the internet now and asking for a day rate to fit them.

 

Long story, but I was an electrical contractor for a couple of medium sized jobs. I knew enough about it i Couldn't have physically done the installations but I did design them, it's who you know - So I opened an account at a supply place and got 95% discount on twin & earth, 85% on sockets etc etc Apparently I paid over double for the T&E, I should have got 98% discount. The internet was barely a thing then, not the shop it's become. Pretty clear electricians just charged the headline price back then, no need to mark up. That was an eye opener. The electrical installation companies I employed to do the work were a tad cheesed off that it wasn't supply and fit.

I reckon they're still pretty cheap, I bought a new bulb for my microwave 3 years ago - 15p or £3 in the high street

 

This is being pitched as though it’s one or the other. You are either a legal aid criminal barrister or a private criminal barrister. That’s clearly nonsense as barristers can take work from any where. That’s like saying that an NHS consultant doctor doesn’t do private work as well. I suspect that the truth is somewhere nearer this
“I only earns £9000 pounds from my legal aid work last year”
“Wow you’d be better off working at McDonalds”
“I’m not doing that”
“Why not? “
“I’m not losing out on my 60k of private work”

 

And I expect you will fit them for cash !
I bet the country not having an endless amount of money even enters your mind at that point

 

Sorry I can’t do that. I have to register all boilers fitted legally with Gas Safe Register, who then register them with the local building control office. It’s called Benchmarking and definitely leaves a paper trail. I’m too pretty for prison.

secondly I fit boilers that have a ten or twelve year warranty. Provided it’s registered with the manufacturers within thirty days of installation. I don’t think you’d be too happy If I never registered your boiler cos you paid me cash and then when you try to claim your warranty is worthless.

 

Wrong again, how many of the criminal cases in either magistrates or Crown Court do you think involve a defendant of sufficient means to pay privately? I have no figures but I’d be stunned if it was above 10% . Chances are also that if you were wealthy and were perhaps going to lose your licence you would either a) instruct a very experienced barrister or b) instruct a very experienced solicitor with advocacy rights in the higher courts. Both of these options take away any realistic opportunity for the younger legal aid barrister to charge a private fee. Most barristers doing criminal work will have virtually nil private clients. Like any business, you can also shop around and negotiate with the clerk as to how much your client is prepared to pay ( non LA work of course )

 

I’m actually thinking of going into politics. If this thread has taught us anything, it’s that this country needs more true socialists like me, who are prepared to stand up for the rights of the nurses and the firemen over the Barrister supporting Labour Party, who leader lets not forget was the top barrister in the land. Of course he’ll back his legal mates strike action. It’s an old boys club. What it needs is grass roots socialists like me to drain the swamp of the old boys network. I think I might stand for the Labour Party in my area next time. Up the workers and the nurses. Down with the fat cat barristers.

 

Bless, still doesn't get that legal aid barristers are pretty much part of social services... but without a job.

 

I’m not quite as green as I am cabbage looking.
On the one hand I’m being told to read the guardian and understand. That article claims that barristers are earning as low as 9k a year. Then I’m being told by you that their expenses dwarf mine and by the sounds of it dwarf the 9-12k that they are apparently earning. Now I’m not a smart man but even I know that you can’t legally trade whilst insolvent. And if they really earn what the guardian says, or they really have the expenses that you claim, well let’s just say they’d all be de-barred by now or in jail themselves. So even a dump ass like me can see that both of those can’t be true.