Report comment

Lawyers may yet retain some leverage if the courts are prepared to recognize sufficiently the devastating effect on families, career prospects, incomes and social standing of miscarriages of justice, particularly in a time of enhanced DBS checks. This applies just as much to summary convictions for lesser offences as it does to convictions for more serious indictable matters. Civil courts need to be robust in awarding significant compensation and should not in any way be hidebound by assertions of police and prosecution immunity. Really, the buck should stop with the Government. I suspect there are major fault lines in the law in this area that should be subject to scrutiny on a number of grounds. If there developed an ethos of justly pursuing the losses consequent upon such miscarriages then no doubt firms would establish a protocol for taking on suitable cases both through criminal appeal and civil redress. There may well be an element of opportunity cost which itself would regulate the filtration of worthy cases. The fact is, as public funding recedes miscarriages are increasing on a daily basis.