Some defence lawyers acting for Post Office Horizon scandal victims during their prosecutions adopted a ‘culture of defeat’ and failed to offer adequate representation, an academic study claims today. The research found that representation of many of the 900 prosecuted sub-postmasters was ‘constrained and haphazard’.
Based on 28 in-depth interviews with victims and their families, researchers found a recurring view that defence lawyers were outgunned, out of their depth or uninterested in what their clients had to say.
There was recognition that lawyers taking on the prosecutorial might of the Post Office had a difficult job – particularly in light of disclosure shortcomings – but some victims said their claims of innocence were often not investigated or taken seriously, with defendants assumed to have been guilty.
The study was carried out by the Post Office research project and Evidence-Based Justice Lab, run by Dr Sally Day, Professor Richard Moorhead and Professor Rebecca Helm, from the University of Exeter Law School, and Dr Karen Nokes, from UCL.
Moorhead, who leads the research team, said defence lawyers sidestepped rather than addressed their clients’ assertions and focused solely on advising them to plead guilty.
‘Lawyers treated plea decisions as routine, when for the sub-postmasters they were life-changing,’ he added. ‘Protestations of innocence were not taken seriously. Their opponent behaved appallingly, but client stories were also not fully understood or investigated by those they had to put faith in.
‘While advice to plead was well received by some, who were thankful that plea agreements kept them out of jail, others still bear the scars of sometimes profound carelessness in their treatment by their lawyers and the courts.’
The role of Post Office lawyers was scrutinised by the Horizon IT public inquiry, which ended last year, but relatively little attention has been paid to the defence lawyers, courts and judges during the period when prosecutions took place between 2000 and 2013.
Some of those interviewed praised representatives, with these positive experiences tending to involve lawyers who were starting out in their careers. One sub-postmaster said their representative was ‘young, vibrant, ambitious, cared, and wanted to win – perhaps different to other lawyers who might perhaps be more jaded’.
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