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Er hang on, Anonymous at 9:30, Public Defender schemes are well established in many other common law jurisdictions. The only reason that the PDS has been slow to develop here is the vested interests of all the solcitiors firms and barrister chambers that have grown fat on the legal aid gravy train. Well that train has now hit the buffers and it's time to get off. But the government must learn the lessons from the States - the PDS must be funded and staffed properly, it must not become the domain of inexperienced or incompetent advocates who can't cut it elsewhere, otherwise the savings made will be at the expense of quality and true justice for all.