Evidence submitted by John Smith (LAR
128)
Please accept the following as my comments on
the Carter Review for consideration by the Constitutional Affairs
Committee. I am a sole practitioner dealing virtually exclusively
with Criminal Defence work and almost entirely funded by Legal
Aid. I work in a rural area, Cumbria. I wish to make the following,
brief, points.
1. There has been no effective pay rise
for criminal defence lawyers for approximately 14 years, save
for a small rise in some situations in 2001.
2. There has been an explosion in the volume
of legislation and the complexity of legislation over that period.
3. At the same time there has been a significant
increase in funding for the Crown Prosecution Service, the Police
and for other prosecuting agencies such as HM Customs and Excise.
4. There will be considerable data available
dealing with the cost of operatimg a defence practice as the Legal
Services Commission has operated the Public Defender Service (PDS)
for several years now. A final report on the PDS is considerably
overdue. One wonders why it has not been published. As far as
I can see from the information that is available on the PDS, the
cost of operating the PDS far exceeds the cost of operating the
average defence firm funded by legal aid. This Government receives
extremely good value for money from legal aid defence firms.
5. There is considerable wastage in the
system. A great deal of the cost of that waste falls onto the
defence firms. This is reducing the profitability of firms such
as mine to the point where I question whether I have a viable
future doing this work. Rates of remuneration must be increased
and increased significantly if this Government wants in future
to be able to say that we have an enviable system of law in this
country. Although much of the cost of waste is borne by defence
firms, the cause of the waste lies elsewhere. A report giving
details and drawing conclusions was commissioned, I believe, by
the Legal Services Commission. It was carried out by Ed Cape and
Richard Moorhead.
6. Examples proliferate. I have today been
involved in a case in which a client, having pleaded guilty and
wishing to be sentenced quickly, asked to be sentenced without
wasting time on a probation pre-sentence report. In plain English,
he accepted that he would receive a sentence of custody. He is
on remand in prison at present. He was not produced in Court today
because someone forgot to put him on the prison transport. It
took until 3.00 pm today before it was clear that he would not
be produced. He will now (hopefully) be produced tomorrow. Because
there are no cells at Carlisle Magistrates Court he is being produced
at Penrith, a round trip for me of over 40 miles. Under the proposals
put forward by Lord Carter, I will receive no payment for travel
cost, travel time or waiting time. I cannot run a business like
that. If this were to be an isolated case, it would be bad enough,
but sadly it is not an isolated case. I had an almost identical
case exactly a week earlier, although on that occasion the defendant
was produced during the afternoon of the first day, instead of
at 10.00 am.
7. There are many similar examples at Police
Stations. I attend at the Police Station when my client is due
to appear, having first telephoned to check that I am still required.
I find all too often that my client is simply to be re-bailed
to a different date or simply charged with there being no need
for my attendance. There are many occasions when both I and my
client arrive at the police station to be told that there is to
be no further action taken and we have both wasted our time in
attending. There have been occasions when I have attended to find
that the police officer concerned is not even on duty and that
no-one seems to know what is to happen.
8. Lord Carter's report envisages that economies
of scale will mean that firms will combine and remain profitable.
I have looked at the various models of firm proposed in Lord Carter's
review and I fail to see how they will operate in Cumbria.
9. Comparisons with other jurisdictions
are not always valid. I wonder if there is a hidden agenda to
move towards a continental style of law enforcement, to bring
us more "into step" with Europe and to save money at
the expense of our judicial system.
10. In short, Lord Carter's report seeks
to penalise further the defence solicitor who is an easy target,
even if he is not blameworthy.
October 2006
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