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England and Wales’ chief prosecutor has called for a review of the way criminal lawyers are paid, warning that some parts of the current fees system could contribute to lengthy delays in court.
Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions, told MPs he was concerned that lawyers would receive substantially more if their cases went to trial than if their clients pleaded guilty at an early stage.
Lawyers dealing with Class A drugs cases receive around £3,400 more for cases where suspects plead guilty after a trial has begun than for cases where they do so at an initial hearing. This is about double their fee if the suspect pleads guilty at an earlier stage, he said.
“If we don’t do things differently, that’s the problem [of court backlogs] will only get worse,” he told the House of Commons Justice Committee. The structure of payments for attorneys and attorneys “really requires attention,” he added.
Relatively low wages for criminal lawyers, due to cuts in legal aid, have led to a significant number of lawyers leaving practice, exacerbating the backlog in the justice system.
The National Audit Office calculated that legal aid expenditure has fallen by 28 percent in real terms over the past ten years.
Parkinson, previously one of the City of London’s best-known white-collar criminal lawyers before being appointed last year to replace Sir Max Hill KC at the helm of the Crown Prosecution Service, is the latest member of the English legal establishment to detail extensive issues with the criminal justice system.
Baroness Sue Carr, the female chief justice, told the committee last week that ministers’ refusal to fund more criminal court hearings was having a “drastic effect”.
Parkinson told the committee on Tuesday that a police recruitment drive by the last government, which hired 20,000 officers, had increased pressure on the system.
“The workload is growing, but the court’s capacity to deal with it has remained the same.”
Inexperience in the ranks contributed to the hold-ups, he added, pointing to large numbers of officers – as well as crown prosecutors – who had served less than five years.
“There is a lot of inexperience in the criminal justice system,” Parkinson said. “That means it takes longer to resolve cases; the police don’t have the experience to look for the right things.”
Decisions on whether to prosecute can be “overly cautious,” he said, adding: “Experienced prosecutors can make decisions quickly.”
Parkinson warned that some defendants were “taking advantage” of the delays. They “know that the longer the case drags on,” the greater the chance that “something could go wrong” for the prosecutor.
Long wait times risked alienating witnesses and victims, he said. “It is difficult to keep victims with us.”
The former senior partner at law firm Kingsley Napley said his “top priority” was to reduce case delays, and said he would draw on his private sector experience to improve efficiency.
The Ministry of Justice said: “The new government has inherited a justice system under enormous pressure and a legal aid system for criminal justice purposes that faces major challenges.”
It added that “criminal defense lawyers play a vital role in ensuring justice”, and said it was providing £24 million for legal aid.