Equality of arms

Just following up on my recent tweets it seems to me that once you have criminal defence operating directly within government the disparity that has operated for years and officially sanctioned being the vast difference between funding and resources for prosecution and the criminal bar can no longer be tolerated. Even then there is no equivalent of the public defence service within the prosecution system. And witness for years the preference given to lawyers from the prosecution side of the fence for judge jobs and other preferment. At a government level there can be no policy that allows such a situation now that the government itself is running the defence service. And even more so now that all thats left of the private defence bar will also be state controlled through the bulk funding system and its ugly sister no counsel of choice. I dont think the government thought these issues through in its piecemeal and idealogically driven approach. They never asked or took any notice of the operating defence system. Urgent steps need to be taken to put all parties on an equal footing including a fully funded private investigation service for defence providers and the placing of prosecution on the same footing as the public defence service. We are heading for a crisis of the governments own making.



Comments

  1. Nicely put Jeremy, particularly the last point. One of the key issues I see in my investigation work is authorities electing not to make important inquiries once they have satisfied themselves of an Accused's guilt. From time to time, evidence of innocence is just around the corner. Regrettably the Crown case continues towards its destination, oblivious to the exculpatory evidence. So too might the Defence, without a proper investigation of their own.

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