Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Privatised justice is no justice at all | Nina Power

7:48 AM | Posted by Free Game Zone | | Edit Post

Chris Grayling

radical changes to legal aid could mean being represented by the same company that prisons

Imagine the following scenario: you're at a gathering of thousands of people about something you believe in the force - against the government to go to war, for example, or against a massive increase tuition, or because the cuts you and many know in a precarious situation disappeared. You do not know what the exact path is, perhaps, but he met the other starting point and follow the crowd. Someone along the road through a small card with the details of law firms specializing in cases of protest. You think, "I do not need that, I do not go into something confrontation", but I put the card in my pocket anyway.

few hours later, after being surrounded the crowd, charging police horses. You are at the front, fear and anger. You scream and you pushed a police officer. A few hours later, people in the boiler are released in a row, you are arrested and taken to the police station. Asked about a lawyer, you remember the card in your pocket and dial the number. Later, accused of a serious public order crime, it is recommended by your lawyer, based on evidence, plead "not guilty." After a trial that was unanimously acquitted by the jury and free, so little disoriented and irritated by the experience, to get on with his life.

The crucial factor in the above scenario - which happens more often than you think - is the role of the advice of counsel. In most cases, after protests over tuition fees in 2010, he pleaded not guilty have been paid if they had succumbed to the often overwhelming pressure to plead guilty, with a hostile environment and experience of isolation being accused of a crime, dozens of people were put in jail.
  • While a good lawyer and good advice is not a guarantee of absolution, you can - and often - the difference: the right to a lawyer of their choice, regardless of income, the race, sex or nationality, with the jury system, the cornerstone of justice in an unjust world.
Chris Grayling, Minister of Justice, presented a series of "reforms" proposed for the legal aid system driven by the desire to reduce "€ 220 per year by 2018," which undermine radically that right. Besides restricting access to legal assistance, these proposals will be charged ("clients") assigned legal representation (a "Supplier") by the Agency for Legal Aid. Law firms will forced to compete for the case in an attempt to tendering process in which large companies, often the same to ensure the security of prisons, can be controlled. In other words, a lawyer is obliged to you , legal aid will be even more difficult to obtain, and the chances of avoiding jail will get thinner and thinner.

legal advice you receive should be "good" is not good, according to the proposals. In the near future, may be appointed Serco lawyer, taken to jail in a van and monitored by Serco Serco guards - interest in a guilty plea in this situation is clearly worrying. That the language of "customers" and "suppliers" hidden is that the burden on the Crown to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you are guilty of the charges against you. This is the state that you and the State punishes loads: the language of the consumer should not apply. This is a situation that requires skill and tranquility of a lawyer, not an approach to the production line of "justice".


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