the cons

• the government budget for criminal legal aid has been cut. between 2018 and 2019, the budget was 879 million, but in 2017 and 2018 it was 891 million. the criminal legal aid budget had peaked in 2007 and 2008 at 1.2 billion pound.
• Even though the budget for criminal legal aid has been cut, there has not been a corresponding drop in the number of riem sbieng committed, or coming to court so the amount of money availanele to fund the scheme has been steadily reducing.
• Fewer firms are providing criminal legal aid services, as it doesn't pay them to do so. in 2010, 1861 firms were undertaking criminal legal aid work, which has dropped to approximately 1147.
• the drop in criminal legal aid firms has lead to the number of defendants in both the magistrates and crown courts who arent represented by lawyers. as a result of this:

  1. cases are making longer, as points nad procedures sut be explained in simple terms to the defendant
  2. there is a greater chance that the defendant will be found guilty and denied justice.
• The longer-term future for solicitors' firms practicing in the criminal legal aid sector isn't very promising:

  • Solciitors don't want to practice law in this field as it isn't enumerated as well as other areas of law
  • unsociable work hours-- solicitors can be called out during the night to attend a police station, and have to go to court the next day.
• the only alternative to the current criminal legal aid system is for the government to set up a public defender service, to represent all defednats charged with criminal offences--- this isn't likely to occur because it is likely to cost far more than what is presently being spent.
• as a result of the strict means test, especially so in the magistrate's court, about 75 percent of the denfednats that appear do not qualfiy for legal aid. in the crown court, there are less sever financial limits however the cases dealt with there are far more serious and so the cases are more expensive to deal with-- but this means hat htere is less money available for each case, an this can increase the risk of injustice.
• The interest of justice test is strictly applied, it has to be sown that there is a real prospect of imprisonment for the satisfaction of this test. one result of this is that a defendnat with a greater number of convictions is more likely to be imprisoned and therefore is more likely to recieve legal aid. a defendnat who is charged with a serious offence but is less liekly to go to prison likely will not qualify for legal aid.