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Social Programme
Arrangements are also proceeding to provide an
interesting Social programme. This provisionally in-
cludes a reception for Conferees and their Guests to be
given by the Government of the Principality o f
Monaco on Tuesday, 12th September and by the
Muncipality of Nice on Thursday, 14th September. It
is hoped also to provide a special programme for the
Lady guests of Conferees as well as a "French
Evening" at a small restaurant on the heights of the
Corniche behind Monte Carlo for a strictly limited
number of Conferees on the evening of Wednesday,
13th September.
The Conference will close with a Banquet and danc-
ing to be held on Friday, 15th September in a suitably
attractive venue.
Hotels and Travel
The Association has appointed as official travel
agents for the Conference the following :
For Europe, Africa and the Middle East:
Thomas Cook & Son Ltd.,
45 Berkeley Street, London W.l.
Allocations available during the Conference period of
Hotel Rooms from a block booking have been made.
Registration
Registration forms for the Conference are being sent
out to all Patrons and Subscribers of the Association
through the travel agencies, which will also send parti-
culars of their own proposals for travel, hotel accom-
modation and package or other tours. All lawyers
interested in attending the Conference are invited to
get into touch with and make their arrangements
through their local office of the appropriate agency in
their country.
Call for court duty solicitor
to aid defendants
Appointment of a "duty solicitor" in magistrates'
courts to advise defendants on how to plead, to apply
for bail or to make a speech in mitigation of sentence
for them is strongly urged today by Justice, the all-
party lawyers' organisation.
After an inquiry into the position of unrepresented
defendants in magistrates' courts, Justice concludes in
a report today that the present legal aid system is
failing dismally.
Large numbers of defendants were being sent to
prison without being represented in court, defendants
were pleading guilty because they had no proper legal
advice and others were being remanded in custody
unnecessarily.
Urging adoption of the duty solicitor system already
used in sheriff courts in Scotland and the Ontario
Province of Canada, Justice says it would mean de-
fendants had some form of legal representation at their
first court appearance without exorgitant demands on
the man-power of the profession or the Exchequer.
Overwhelming Evidence
The report has been drawn up by a committee includ-
ing a stipendiary and a lay magistrate, practising
barristers and sol'citors and academic lawyers. It has
been endorsed by the Council of Justice, the British
section of the International Commission of Jurists.
From their own experience and recent studies in the
courts by lawyers and social workers, the committee
found that there was an "overwhelming and incontro-
vertible body of evidence" that the legal aid system
was not working as intended by a committee headed by
Lord Widgery, now Lord Chief Justice, which reported
five years ago.
In only about four per cent, of the 1,700,000 cases
tried m magistrates' courts in 1969 were defendants
legally represented.
Yet magistrates tried a large number of serious cases
and sent more people to prison tha the higher courts.
Exact figures were not available but a majority of those
sent to prison by magistrates were unrepresented.
The report stresses the large discrepancies in the
refusal rate of legal aid between courts. In 1969 this
ranged from 68 per cent, at Marlborough Street Court,
London, to 32 per cent, at Bow Street and from 90 per
cent, at Bootle to one per cent, at Carlisle.
Of 565 women interviewed in Holloway prison, 81
per cent, of those sentenced to prison or borstal and 79
per cent, of those remanded in custody and not later
imprisoned were not represented at their trial.
The committee stresses that it is not criticising the
"thousands of magistrates both lay and stipendiary
who in our judgment render invaluable service to the
community in the labours they perform so conscien-
tiously."
Under the duty solicitor scheme in Scotland, solicitors
drawn from a roster are on duty at the court every day
for a week. They see all prisoners in custody before they
appear in court.
Solicitors' fees for duty at the courts are paid from
public funds. At Glasgow Sheriff Court, a duty solicitor
can earn a maximum of £17 a day or £85 a week on
the basis of one morning or afternoon session a day.
Immediate Help
Under the scheme, the unrepresented defendant
receives the advice and help he immediately needs, says
the report. The court is protected against doing injustice
unwittingly and there would also be a saving in court
time and on the cost of defendants now remanded in
custody unnecessarily.
Other recommendations of the committee are for
more training of magistrates to ensure greater uni-
formity in granting legal aid and the setting up of a
supervisory committee responsible to the Home Secre-
tary for keeping the criminal legal aid system under
review.
(Daily Telegraph,
15th Nov. 1971)
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