Clause 58
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
3:15 pm
Charles Walker (Broxbourne, Conservative)
I, too, am concerned about the downgrading of the legal and judicial system. There are many good Crown Prosecution Service lawyers out there who do a fantastic job on behalf of their clients, but I am afraid that there are also some fairly poor ones who do not provide adequate representation in a court of law. When they fail to do so, they deny victims the justice that they deserve; they deny the families of someone who has been killed in a road accident, for example, the closure that they deserve. I am concerned about anything that will create greater imbalance.
Given that there is already a weakness among some CPS lawyers, having people who are not even legally trained representing families in magistrates courts will present a host of problems. One of the main problems will be that if there has been a road traffic accident, for example, there will invariably be an imbalance in representation. The victim, or the family of someone killed in an accident, will invariably be the economically weaker party. They will be represented by the CPS or one of these paralegals, whereas the driver of the lorry or car will be represented by their insurance company, which will not want to pay out on any conviction. It is incumbent on all politicians to ensure that we do not have justice on the cheap and that we ensure that the victims of tragedy and crime get the best representation that we can possibly provide. The clause may deny them that representation and thereby deny them the justice that they invariably deserve.