Heads you lose, Tails you lose too!

gfcme3060

Not sure if this is the right place for this information, but here goes, please feel free to move it.

It seems that we have a new system of complaint for Speeding tickets and the like, if you wish to take the matter to court and you lose you will need to pay the fine and the court costs, however if you win, you will not have to pay the fine, but you will need to pay the Costs! Who said justice was only for the rich !!!

Below is the Number 10 response to the petition! Let me know what you think.

Monday 25 January 2010
Costsrecovery - epetition response

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure an acquitted defendant’s rights to costs recovery from the Court Central Funds remain unchanged.”
Details of Petition:
“The Ministry of Justice plan to implement a new costs recovery system from October 2009. Under new rules any defendant acquitted of an offence in the Magistrates’ Court will only be reimbursed at prevailing legal aid rates regardless of the level of costs they paid to their lawyers. This proposed rule change will undoubtedly mean that many defendants will accept wrongful prosecutions for commercial reasons. The Association of Motor Offence Lawyers (of which I am President) see thousands of convictions each year in the Magistrates’ Court that should never occur due to misunderstanding of technical points concerning motoring legislation. If a defendant wishes to clear their name, they often have to take their case to the Crown Court. This can be an expensive process for which legal aid is unavailable which many will not embark upon with the knowledge that even when they win their appeal, they will lose the majority of the legal fees they spend in the process. The costs savings the government are seeing to make could be made by examining and improving other ineffective processes within the court system. It is not fair to pass yet another expense onto the public.”

Read the Government’s response

While the Government accepts that individuals who are acquitted in the magistrates’ court should continue to have access to Central Funds, it is essential that we also target our resources effectively, secure value for money for the taxpayer and control areas of overspend in our budget.
The Government does not believe that defendants will be more likely to plead guilty to offences they would otherwise deny. Defendants who pay for representation privately do so without certainty that they will be acquitted. If acquitted, there is no guarantee that any particular sum would be assessed as reasonable.
We believe that the rates we pay for criminal cases under legal aid are both fair and sustainable and should be available on the open market.
We believe that lawyers are able to provide a reasonable service at legal aid rates, but if a defendant wants to have, for example, a senior partner’s undivided attention, he may be prepared to pay more for a “premium service”, but would have to understand that he would not recover all of these costs.
Information relating to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) consultation on Award of Costs from Central Funds is available on the MOJ Website