The Bar Council has hit back over accusations that it is acting illegally by encouraging barristers to boycott new legal aid contracts for the most serious trials.

Hundreds of barristers have refused to sign the contracts, which will put them on new pay rates for murder, complex fraud, terrorism and rape cases that can be as low as £91 an hour for a Queen’s Counsel.

The Legal Services Commission (LSC), which is seeking to bring in the new regime, told the Bar Council last week that any attempt to co-ordinate a boycott or mass refusal to sign the contracts would be unlawful and a breach of competition law.

The LSC said that if large numbers of barristers did not sign after previously indicating that they would, then “some intervening event” must have caused them to change their minds.

This, barristers say, was a hint that the Bar Council itself must have advised barristers not to sign.

But yesterday the Bar Council accused the Legal Services Commission of seeking to coerce barristers into signing with threats about competition law.

Tim Dutton, QC, Bar Council chairman, accepted that it is “common ground” that there are problems with the new contracts and the Bar wants to agree a scheme that is economical and sees barristers “fairly, not excessively, paid”.

But in a letter to the LSC he said: “It is preferable for these discussions to take place in an environment that is free from threats to invoke competition law, let alone criminal sanction, against the legal profession.”

He also adds that he is “concerned” that the Commission had put out a statement indicating that many barristers were signing the contracts when the contrary now appeared to be the case.

If insufficient barristers sign up to the new arrangements, defendants charged with the most serious crimes, including complex fraud, terrorism and murder, could be left without proper representation.

Barristers say most of the 2,300 chosen for panels to represent defendants in very high cost cases (VHCC) say they will not sign the contract, mainly because the rates are significantly lower than their current pay.

Feelings are running so high that one criminal barrister wrote at the weekend to the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, asking him to investigate Richard Collins, the policy official at the Legal Services Commission, over his letter which they see as an attempt to "blackmail" barristers into signing.

The LSC refused to say how many had signed up. But in his letter last Thursday to the Bar Council, Mr Collins admitted that, four days before the deadline, a "very high proportion" had still to sign.

Barristers and the Bar Council say that any decision not to sign is being made by barristers individually.

In a statement yesterday the Legal Services Commission said that the so-called very high cost cases accounted for £105 million for the total legal aid budget and nine per cent of criminal legal aid.

The new hourly rates for preparation work ranged from £91 to £145 an hour, with separate rates for in-court work. Under these, a QC will get £476 a day and a leading junior will get £390 a day.

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