Night courts plan 'vastly expensive', lawyers warn24-hour justice: lawyers will 'run a mile' from schemeCriminal practitioners have expressed serious doubts about the financial and practical viability of the 24-hour court system proposed last week by Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.Malcolm Fowler, chairman of the Law Society's criminal law committee, said the scheme would be 'vastly expensive'.'When you look at the number of people who will be involved - court clerks, Crown Prosecution Service lawyers, escort staff to bring prisoners from custody - who will all have to be paid night working wages, the costs balloon,' said Mr Fowler.He also expressed concern over the standard of justice that would be offered.

'A complainant will be giving vitally important evidence when he is most probably dead on his feet from working all day.

The interests of justice cannot be diluted in the interests of speeding up the model.'Franklin Sinclair, chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, agreed and expressed 'serious doubts' over how well the system would work in practice, saying: 'Can we really expect justice to bedelivered properly this late at night? It's simply not fair to bring a youth into court at midnight.'He also said the system could cause problems when recruiting criminal solicitors.

'With the falling pay, it is already enough of a struggle to attract good-quality criminal lawyers, but when you tell a prospective applicant that they may have to work throughout the night for only a little more pay, they'll run a mile,' he warned.Victoria MacCallum