I agree with all the comments so far, although I would argue that Joshua’s original piece should have stressed that those unrepresented defendants may be unfairly convicted as well as acquitted (probably he was being deliberately contentious!).
As a former legal aid defence lawyer I often had to bite the bullet when it came to taking on alleged sex offenders or, worse still, alleged child murderers. Interestingly, my main concern was not the feelings of the general public, but the sudden high moral standards of my regular criminal clients!
1. It was shocking when in Birmingham friends and colleagues refused to act for the (as we now know) wrongly accused bombers but then office support staff had threatened to walk out en masse should those practices take on their cases.
2. Mind you when asked by a duty solicitor friend who one Saturday court morning had declined to act for the piper at McDade’s Coventry funeral on even a minor charge I agreed to do so - but then on leaving court I had looked at the underneath of my car before driving off, such was the stifling fear and anti- Irish prejudice spreading like wildfire and I caught myself - momentarily - giving in to it.
3. Many years later, as he had cheerfully volunteered on the BBC Today radio programme, then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had for what he had viewed as diplomatic and trading reasons agreed to have the Mojaheddin -e- Khalq [MEK] [a dissident and nonviolent Iranian opposition movement] deemed terrorists and therefore proscribed.
It took years of (independent and freedom loving) lawyers’ and cross- party Parliamentary effort (most of it unpaid and international as well as domestic) and Court hearings from the Prohibited Organisations Appeals Commission [POAC] all the way up to the Appeal Court to have the government of the day - albeit churlishly - withdraw that gratuitous and malign designation. “Perverse “ was amongst the politest judicial descriptions of a government obstinately holding out for so long without a feather to fly.
We can get caught up in the cab rank rule which, as you note, has patchy enforcement. Solicitors have never had the rule and, of course, until recently you required a solicitor to hire the barristers cab...
It is better to think of it as a fundamental part of the common law/rule of law that everyone is entitled to legal representation regardless of what they are accused of. Lawyers defended Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and it is what set us apart from such regimes. Nobody wants or needs lawyers deciding if you are guilty.
If the Conservative party goes down that line it will be very depressing and show yet more contempt for our constitution. It should also be an easy riposte. If he was so awful, why did the Conservative party Knight him? Hansard will also have lots of examples of ministers praising him at the time and when he retired. They hope the public are idiots, but I suspect most will see through it.
I agree with all the comments so far, although I would argue that Joshua’s original piece should have stressed that those unrepresented defendants may be unfairly convicted as well as acquitted (probably he was being deliberately contentious!).
As a former legal aid defence lawyer I often had to bite the bullet when it came to taking on alleged sex offenders or, worse still, alleged child murderers. Interestingly, my main concern was not the feelings of the general public, but the sudden high moral standards of my regular criminal clients!
I of course agree with Joshua and Alisdair.
1. It was shocking when in Birmingham friends and colleagues refused to act for the (as we now know) wrongly accused bombers but then office support staff had threatened to walk out en masse should those practices take on their cases.
2. Mind you when asked by a duty solicitor friend who one Saturday court morning had declined to act for the piper at McDade’s Coventry funeral on even a minor charge I agreed to do so - but then on leaving court I had looked at the underneath of my car before driving off, such was the stifling fear and anti- Irish prejudice spreading like wildfire and I caught myself - momentarily - giving in to it.
3. Many years later, as he had cheerfully volunteered on the BBC Today radio programme, then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had for what he had viewed as diplomatic and trading reasons agreed to have the Mojaheddin -e- Khalq [MEK] [a dissident and nonviolent Iranian opposition movement] deemed terrorists and therefore proscribed.
It took years of (independent and freedom loving) lawyers’ and cross- party Parliamentary effort (most of it unpaid and international as well as domestic) and Court hearings from the Prohibited Organisations Appeals Commission [POAC] all the way up to the Appeal Court to have the government of the day - albeit churlishly - withdraw that gratuitous and malign designation. “Perverse “ was amongst the politest judicial descriptions of a government obstinately holding out for so long without a feather to fly.
And so it goes on- and on.
We can get caught up in the cab rank rule which, as you note, has patchy enforcement. Solicitors have never had the rule and, of course, until recently you required a solicitor to hire the barristers cab...
It is better to think of it as a fundamental part of the common law/rule of law that everyone is entitled to legal representation regardless of what they are accused of. Lawyers defended Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and it is what set us apart from such regimes. Nobody wants or needs lawyers deciding if you are guilty.
If the Conservative party goes down that line it will be very depressing and show yet more contempt for our constitution. It should also be an easy riposte. If he was so awful, why did the Conservative party Knight him? Hansard will also have lots of examples of ministers praising him at the time and when he retired. They hope the public are idiots, but I suspect most will see through it.
Yes indeed.
A KCB is the expected reward for the job. Even Alison Saunders received a DCB, after a decent interval.