- 198 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Legal Aid Lawyers and the Quest for Justice
About this book
This book examines the state of access to criminal justice by considering the health of the lawyer-client relationship under legal aid. In the largest study of its kind for some two decades, ethnographic fieldwork is used to gain a fresh perspective upon the interaction that lies at the heart of the criminal justice system's equality of arms. The research produces two contradictory messages; in interview, lawyers claim a positive relationship with their clients while, under participant observation, there emerges quite the opposite. Paying more heed to what was seen than what was said, it is supposed that these lawyers were able to talk the talk but not walk the walk. The lawyers treat their clients with wanton disrespect; making fun of them, talking over them and pushing them to plead guilty â despite protestations to the contrary. The evidence is damning for this branch of the legal profession â and tragic for the clients who depend on them. What is responsible for this malaiseâŚinadequate financial remuneration? Increased time pressures? Lapsed ethical training? Whatever the origin, this book is intended to show the profession that there is a problem â one that could get worse unless they choose to learn from the mistakes made by the lawyers in this study.
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Information
Table of contents
- Peliminary pages
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- 1. Access to Justice and the LawyerâClient Relationship
- Modelling Criminal Justice
- The Need for Lawyers
- The Legal Profession
- Legal Aid
- The Impact of Legal Aid Reductions
- 2. Investigating the Reality of Legally Aided Criminal Defence
- Standing Accused and the Reality of the Law
- Structuralism and Interpretivism
- Integrated Methodology
- The Firms in This Research
- The Organisation of this Book
- 3. Attitudes
- Section 1 - What Lawyers Said about Attitudes
- Section 2 - What I Saw on Attitudes
- Section 3 - Attitudes
- 4. Behaviour
- Section 1 - What Lawyers Said about Behaviour
- Section 2 - What I Saw on Behaviour
- Section 3 - Behaviour
- 5. Outcomes
- Section 1 - What Lawyers Said about Outcomes
- Section 2 - What I Saw on Outcomes
- Section 3 - Outcomes
- 6. Some Concluding Thoughts: Access to Justice and the LawyerâClient Relationship Revisited
- Rhetoric
- Legal Aid
- Values
- Clients
- Justice
- Bibliography
- Index