Is the time ripe for a public defender system? Writing in this week’s NLJ, solicitor Roger Smith mulls the pros and cons of such a system, noting the underfunding of criminal legal aid, the ongoing ‘no returns’ action of the Criminal Bar and the current political climate
He identifies the five ingredients for success, writing: ‘A public defender system is, of course, vulnerable to cuts just as much as legal aid and the Crown Prosecution Service. But then our current system is not working—that is the point of the current action. The difficulty is that legal aid may never return to the position of a decade or more ago.’
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