Vulnerable defendants are in danger of missing out in representation because of funding regime for Crown Court work.

I feel the need to share my concerns about an anomaly with the new funding regime for Crown Court work.

Earlier this year I received a request from a mental health specialist colleague to act for a client, a paranoid schizophrenic who was facing a serious allegation of assaulting his doctor and who had already been committed by the magistrates to the Crown Court for sentencing. At the magistrates’ court he had been unrepresented. The increased workload arose from numerous complications, which included difficulties in taking meaningful instructions from such a client, and consideration as to whether the client had sufficient mens rea to have pleaded guilty in the first place.

Under the old system I would have received £756 plus VAT for my time, equating to an hourly rate of about £38 – an extremely modest sum in itself. Under the new system I received £212, an hourly rate of less than £11. There is no leeway. I am simply told that there are ‘swings and roundabouts’ in these sorts of cases. I will need several very big swings to make up for this roundabout. At this rate, I shall soon be receiving less than the minimum wage.

Funding at the magistrates’ court provides enhanced rates in cases where there are exceptional circumstances. There needs to be a similar provision at the Crown Court, otherwise defendants in these circumstances – the ones who need it most – are simply not going to be represented.

Mark Thompson, Sole practitioner, Thetford