I would like to comment on the new legal aid system being introduced for persons arrested and interviewed.

Over the past 20 years in my line of work in the UK, I have seen this system on a daily basis and while I agree that there should be help available for persons who are detained and interrogated by the police, I have a few reservations.

The concept of free and independent legal advice is a good one and the fact that solicitors are available to advise detained people is also very good. My concern, however, is that this will prove to be a huge business interest for legal aid solicitors and will cost the country millions upon millions. The system as it stands now in the UK works as follows.

A person is arrested and given his rights. While in custody he asks for a solicitor (free of charge) and he has a consultation and receives advice. The solicitor then assists in obtaining police bail for this person and eventually represents him/her in court. All this is paid for by legal aid.

Now, while a law-abiding citizen might end up in a situation where he needs advice and assistance from a solicitor, maybe once in their lifetime, a career criminal tends to get arrested regularly and have multiple court cases running concurrently. They tend to get in with one solicitor who they get to know quite well and will ask for that particular solicitor when in custody. This whole process becomes a money-making machine for legal aid solicitors who prolong cases and legal enquiries to suit their client, thus hindering police investigations.

Everybody is entitled to free and independent legal advice but believe me when I say that career criminals have more knowledge of the law than even some police officers! Therefore, I ask, why should these people be provided with all this expensive assistance at tax payers' expense?

I would therefore suggest that every citizen should have a right for free legal advice while detained for questioning, on a maximum of three occasions, and after that he/she either has to pay their own costs or forfeit any such rights.

This would control any chance of abusing the system by the career criminals and God forbid by the legal aid solicitors or their representatives. Law-abiding citizens rarely find themselves on the wrong side of the law and this would ensure that on the occasion they require help they would get it.

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