Your coverage of the concerns of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) raised a number of issues (see [2005] Gazette, 28 July, 1).

When we set up the Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association, two of our important aims were to develop a good working relationship with the commission, and to encourage more lawyers to take up what we believe to be the vital work of pursuing miscarriages of justice.


In relation to the latter we have not had great success, and the problem has been correctly identified as being inadequate legal aid provision. Solicitors taking up these cases either do so on a pro bono basis or under the legal advice and assistance scheme at the lowest rates.


Under this scheme there is no provision for payments on account either of profit costs or of disbursements, and a complex application to the commission can typically take two to three years before completion. It is not attractive.


We have developed a good working relationship with the CCRC, but one of the proposals that we have put to it more than once is that there should be a clear agreement with the commission, once a case review manager is appointed, as to the steps that the commission intends to take.


It is disingenuous of the chairman to complain that solicitors only start work when they receive a provisional statement of reasons, if the CCRC has itself not made clear what work it proposes doing during the course of the investigation.


Solicitors can sometimes become aware that the CCRC has decided not to pursue a particular line of enquiry raised in the application only when they receive the statement of reasons. Had a case plan been agreed upon (as we have suggested) at an early stage then the late rush complained of by Professor Graham Zellick would be avoided. The truth is that concerns over miscarriage of justice have become unfashionable, and it is time to ensure that the commission's work is properly funded, and that those representing the applicants are given the appropriate resources to ensure that these cases are properly prepared and investigated.


Campbell Malone, chairman of the Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association