nobody has that kind of money (except defendants with legal aid).
I need to take issue with this.
I have worked for both prosecution and defence over the years and I can say that quite often a legal aid quote will be reduced and to the extent that I have on a few occasions turned work away.
While in some sense the system is stacked in favour of the defendant, non disclosure of unused defence report/contemporaneous notes etc. In other cases I have seen, and had hard evidence, of the prosecution spending many weeks on a case but the defence budget being limited to a few days. In one large case the prosecution had a team working on the case for about a year but my budget (admittedly for just a few of half dozen defendants) was capped at about 7 days IIRC and hence the defence suffered in that we had to prioritise the areas I looked at.
The legal aid budget is not a bottomless pit and unless a lawyer can argue for using my (sometimes) more expensive services then the job will go to the lowest quote.
And there is some truth in the old adage that you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Chill paul, I'm just being flippant and bitter that defendants always seem to get the good experts ;P
Chill paul, I'm just being flippant and bitter that defendants always seem to get the good experts ;P
I live in Cornwall now so I am always chilled ) I am sure that the prosecution experts will appreciate your thoughts though )
I work in LE, they know what I mean. I'm just talking about the mercs.
I work in LE, they know what I mean. I'm just talking about the mercs.
'Mercs' D I like that!