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Access to Justice and Funding

Criminal legal aid and the Public Defender Service

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

Duty solicitor scheme, representation order and four factors in the interests of justice test.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why have criminal legal aid fees become a source of dispute?

Key term

Is advice at the police station means tested?

Key term

Why is police station advice provided free to everyone?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What right does a person detained at a police station have to legal advice?

    Model answer

    Under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 a person held at a police station is entitled to consult a solicitor privately at any time.

  2. 2

    Is advice at the police station means tested?

    Model answer

    No; advice and assistance at the police station is free to anyone questioned under caution, whatever their means.

  3. 3

    Why is police station advice provided free to everyone?

    Model answer

    The suspect is in the custody of the state at the stage that shapes the whole case, so the availability of a lawyer cannot be allowed to depend on ability to pay.

  4. 4

    What is the duty solicitor scheme?

    Model answer

    It is a rota of solicitors available at police stations and magistrates' courts so that a person with no lawyer of their own can obtain immediate advice or representation.

  5. 5

    What is a representation order?

    Model answer

    A representation order is the grant of funding for representation in criminal proceedings, made where the defendant satisfies both the interests of justice test and the means test.

  6. 6

    Name four factors in the interests of justice test.

    Model answer

    Whether the defendant is likely to lose their liberty or their livelihood, whether the case involves a substantial question of law, whether the defendant is unable to understand the proceedings or to state their own case, and whether the case requires witnesses to be traced or expertly cross-examined.

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AThe defendant owed the victim a duty of care and breached it.
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