Midland barristers in dispute with the Lord Chancellor over legal aid pay rates have put their protest action on hold pending a Government review.
Bar leaders in the region say individual barristers will accept legal work, meaning no further disruption to trials, until Lord Carter of Coles's review reports early next year.
But Tim Green, who represents barristers on the Midland circuit's junior bar, warned that barristers would be prepared to take further action if they were unhappy with the results of the Carter Review.
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Mr Green said: "Most barristers feel the protest was successful. It demonstrated that without barristers being prepared to take on cases at short notice the crown courts couldn't function.
"They wanted to warn the Government that they couldn't take them for granted and to demonstrate that they perform an essential service. Trying to run a Crown Court without barristers is like trying to run a hospital without doctors."
He added: "For the next six months barristers will work with Lord Carter and his team to put proposals forward to the Lord Chancellor to make the best use of Legal Aid.
"Most barristers believe that the system can be made to work better, but we also accept that funds are limited. Most barristers have taken the view that it was the right time to suspend their protests, but it is important for the Government to understand that they are prepared to take further action if, when Lord Carter reports, they use it as a smoke screen to dismantle the criminal bar.
"If they use it merely as an excuse to make further cuts to fees and increase the workload further they can expect the same sort of action again."
Barristers who work on criminal cases went on strike last month over a decade-long freeze on their rates of pay for trials lasting up to ten days, a cut in real terms of 25 per cent.
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, made further cuts to Legal Aid pay in July, triggering widespread withdrawal of labour.
