One issue
which dominated legal news over the summer was the future of Criminal Legal
Aid. This was caused by the Government’s controversial plans to restrict a Defendant’s
right to choose his own lawyer and to sell off legal aid contracts to the
highest bidder.
This led to
one of the most committed campaigns by lawyers that I have ever known -
The Ministry
of Justice had no convincing argument against the campaign and at one time
resorted to briefing its friends in the press about so called fat cat lawyers. But
this was an issue that would not go away. Lawyers, many of whomwho had no dealings with
criminal work, were fully behind the campaign for one simple reason – it was
wrong. It was attack on the fundamental rights of those accused by the state to
be represented by the lawyer of their choice.
Minister Chris
Grayling has now confirmed that these particular plans are to be scrapped and
that there will be further consultation on Legal Aid –
This is
certainly good news and we should be grateful to those lawyers who have kept up
the relentless pressure on a Government that has finally had to take notice.
That is not
to say that the problem has gone away. A number of highly damaging moves will
not be changed. One major worry is the proposed introduction of means testing for Defendants in Criminal Cases.
Anyone with disposal income over £37,500 a year and with £3,000 a month left
after bills will not be eligible. This is not a question of the very wealthy
getting legal aid. This means that any hard-working person with a reasonable
income who is charged with an offence, whether rightly or wrongly, will have to go into debt to
defend themselves. And we have seen again this week that terrible miscarriages
of justice do occur –
The state
has virtually unlimited resources to prosecute citizens. Those who are accused
should have equal access to the resources to defend themselves. If a person is
convicted they can be made to pay towards the legal aid costs but removal of
legal aid is again tipping the balancer in favour of the state.
So there
has been progress for which we should all be grateful. But there is still much
to do.
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