Service of PPE and 6000 Cap: A Ticking Time Bomb in the Criminal Courts?

The recent case of Mr Liam Allan is yet another important reminder that the prosecution should not be allowed to serve and rely on mere snapshots of the evidence. In what appears to be a dangerous trend, the crown prosecution service are increasingly choosing to ‘cherry pick’ data from phone or computer evidence rather than serve the full evidence. The objective - to save money.

 In publically funded cases, the remuneration of criminal defence lawyers is linked to the number of pages the crown choose to serve. The fewer pages served, the less a defence lawyer will be paid.

 The recent case of Mr Allen highlights how this selective approach to the service of evidence can potentially result in miscarriages of justice. Fortunately, for Mr Allan, prosecuting counsel stepped in and served the required disk on the defence. The case against Mr Allan at Croydon Crown Court was dropped after three days when the evidence on a computer disk containing 40,000 messages revealed the alleged victim pestered him for "casual sex".

To the extent that this case impacts on how disclosure is handled in the future, the crown prosecution service should be encouraged to serve evidence in full rather than in part. The pursuit of justice should not be constrained by how many pages of evidence are served.

Mr Allan’s case is also relevant to the government's decision to press ahead with yet further cuts to the legal aid fees. The decision to reduce the cap on the number of claimable pages of prosecution evidence from 10,000 to 6,000 is going to place criminal solicitors under considerable strain. The government’s claim that half of the firms currently holding a legal aid contract will be ‘unaffected by the proposal’ is difficult to believe.  

 Criminal defence barristers are only one half of a criminal defence team. An effective presentation in court is heavily dependent on good trial preparation. Criminal defence solicitors need to ensure adequate instructions are taken from the client and this routinely means significant hours are spent sifting through and analysing the evidence. Cases are increasingly complicated because of the increasing use of technology in public life. Phones and computers are routinely seized from suspects during an investigation and the content of these devices can become pivotal to a prosecution case. The fact that cases now involve more pages of evidence means solicitors have to work twice as hard. The answer is not to pay them less.  More pages of evidence are being served by the CPS because cases are now more complicated. Terror cases, fraud cases and serious historic sex cases require a large amount of work, for which solicitors should be paid. The effect of this latest round of cuts further reduces the number of solicitors specialising in criminal law. No wonder the Law Society President Joe Egan said the government was now facing a 'ticking time bomb’ in the criminal courts.

Mr Allan’s case shows there should be investment in criminal legal aid, not cuts or reductions of any kind