The true costs of crime
29I07I09
The True Costs of Crime
Middle class professionals and medium
sized companies are once again hit the hardest.
In its latest assault on
access to justice, the government has concluded a review of the
system whereby the state pays the legal costs of an acquitted
defendant in criminal proceedings.
At present the state pays
for the reasonable costs of an acquitted defendant in criminal
proceedings including companies who have had to privately fund
their defence.
The government’s recent
review has concluded that whilst the state should continue to pay
towards these costs any such payments should be capped at legal aid
rates. Unsurprisingly, the government ignored the majority of
respondents to the consultation exercise who were in favour of
maintaining the status quo.
With new regulations set
to come into force in October, the government's aim is to generate
a proposed saving of between £22-25M which it will use to enhance
the legal aid budget (which has proved remarkably stable over
recent years at £60M as opposed to fanciful claims that there are
recurring overspends).
In the face of no legal
aid rate raises for well over a decade and successive
changes to the way in which criminal legal aid solicitors and
barristers are paid, there has been an exodus of committed and
able lawyers from practicing criminal law. This, together with a
year on year reduction in eligibility for people of low to middle
incomes has led to a lamentable reduction in access to
justice.
We are not talking about
convicted defendants but the innocent - those who may have made
many sacrifices to be able to pay the fees of a criminal lawyer
because they wanted to have the solicitor of their choice or more
likely, because legal aid was not available. A teacher or nurse
accused of a public order offence would not in all likelihood be
eligible for legal aid but if convicted would face disciplinary
proceedings not just by their employer but by their regulator as
well and could face losing their livelihood.
Andrew Manners, Partner
and Head of Regulatory & Defence services at Hugh James
states “It is an abhorrent miscarriage of natural justice to
remove the right of an innocent person to have their legal costs
paid by the state (after those costs have been assessed as
reasonable by the court service) when they were a wholly
involuntary party in proceedings brought either by or on behalf of
the state.
He continued “Many of our
clients are either professionals who face this cross over between
criminal or employment law or are companies facing quite often
complex regulatory requirements. Such clients require specialist
lawyers and it entirely just, fair and reasonable to instruct
competent lawyers in such fields. This is not "gold plated"
representation as the Ministry of Justice proclaims - it is
reasonable representation.”
Andrew Manners, an expert
in assisting companies facing criminal and regulatory
investigations advises that “companies who are prosecuted by
regulatory authorities will have their costs capped at legal
aid rates. This will no doubt result in higher insurance premiums
placing added financial pressures on many struggling
businesses.
Regulators and Local
Authorities seek all their costs at commercial rates (as well as
the investigation costs) against corporate defendants who may plead
guilty to one charge and have seven other
charges dropped. “
He asks “Is it right that
a corporate defendant who successfully defends such a prosecution
will have its costs capped at legal aid rates of less than say £50
per hour but a regulator can recover costs at £200 per hour?”
One option may be
to try and seek costs orders direct against such
prosecutors.
It is clear that in a
world of increasing regulation businesses need to develop
strategies for dealing with regulators. Whilst they may only
recover less than a third of their legal costs in criminal
cases, there are other considerations including their hard won
market reputation and not setting a legal precedent, as well as an
ongoing relationship with the regulator.
For further information contact:
Marketing team
T 029 2066 0587