| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Begum granted legal aid | |
| Posted by: | Jonathan Callaway | |
| Date/Time: | 16/04/19 11:08:00 |
| It is absolutely possible to get a fair trial without legal aid in the criminal courts. Magistrates and court legal advisers go to great lengths to make sure justice is done, but without legal representation the process takes far longer. Detailed guidelines exist on how to proceed in such cases. If a defendant in a magistrates court wishes to appeal a decision he has the right to do so and the appeal would be heard in the Crown Court, where once again he can proceed without legal representation if he is not eligible to or has not applied for legal aid. The legal aid rules have been tightened quite a lot in the last ten years, driven of course by the desire to save money. Sometimes it looks very much like a false saving given the additional court time unrepresented cases require. The rules in civil cases are different and I am not familiar with those. You may remember the huge fuss when members of the wealthy Maxwell family were able to get a lot of expensive legal aid to fight their cases. That started the rot having been widely condemned in parliament never mind the press. |