Criminal solicitors hit back

CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE: Attorney-General accuses practitioners of abusing system

Criminal law solicitors this week lashed out at the Attorney-General after he accused them of 'abusing the system' and suggested there should be a shift in power to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to make them toe the line.

Launching plans for an overhauled CPS at its senior management conference in London last week, Lord Goldsmith QC told chief prosecutors that options for the future included re-branding the CPS as the Public Prosecution Service and turning it into a US-style district attorney regime.

However, Lord Goldsmith said the cornerstone of reform would mean CPS lawyers taking on a higher-profile role as 'fighters for justice'.

He said a key element would involve 'insisting on better performance by the defence' and 'challenging local defence lawyers who are abusing the process rather than serving the interests of their clients'.

He added that the CPS should play a greater role in sentencing and take control of handling witnesses.

Other ideas included basing prosecutors in police stations and making them available at crime scenes.

But a 'surprised and disappointed' Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association and chairman of the Law Society's access to justice committee, said he would be writing to Lord Goldsmith asking him to present any evidence suggesting that defence lawyers were abusing the system.

Mr Warren raised fears that if the proposals went ahead, prosecution lawyers would tell the police, judges and the defence how to do their jobs.

'It would not be appropriate for one participant in the criminal justice system to control the whole of that system,' he argued.

'It is there to serve the public interest, it does not revolve around the CPS - and in the interests of fairness and justice, it shouldn't.'

The row broke out in the same week that the CPS Inspectorate launched its annual report on the service.

The report said the CPS had reacted well to the shift to a system based on functional units handling magistrates' court and Crown Court work, and had improved on last year in terms of adhering to prosecution disclosure, providing pre-charge advice to the police, and timely instructions to counsel.

However, it said there was room for improvement when it came to compliance with the evidential test in the code for Crown prosecutors, and with regards to adverse outcomes that were foreseeable.

CPS chief inspector Stephen Wooler concluded: 'The CPS has succeeded in maintaining an overall sound level of performance during a period of transition - however, there is scope for considerable improvement in a number of respects.'

See Press round-up, (see [2003] Gazette, 6 February, page 13)

Paula Rohan