PROPOSALS to ask solicitors to cover vast areas – and force defendants to be represented by out-of-area solicitors – could lead to "total chaos".
The warning comes from Grimsby solicitor Ernie Lidster, of EC Lidster & Co, who said: "We have always considered our country to have the best criminal justice system in the world, founded on the right to proper legal representation of choice.
"The Lord Chancellor suggests that ordinary members of the public are no longer capable of making that choice and are no longer to be in a position of being able to do so.
"Only the wealthy will have any choice of representation in the future if the current proposals go through.
"National bodies could end up being awarded contracts and there will be no freedom of choice available to any other than the wealthy.
"Quality of representation will decline. There will be no incentive for criminal defence lawyers to go that extra yard.
"Those that remain in existence will find that they have to cover a number of police stations and courts over large geographical areas 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the case of police stations.
"These proposals cannot work and it would be impossible for anybody operating a business to conclude that they could."
Mr Lidster added: "The majority of people arrested by the police are not later charged with criminal offences.
"Many of them are totally innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. Many others are vulnerable and weak.
"It is important that they retain the freedom of choice of representation by lawyers who they know and trust."
He said: "It is every individual's basic right while detained in police custody to have legal representation of their choice by professionals in whom they have confidence.
"Every individual should have the same right, regardless of their personal circumstances, whether they are wealthy, middle class, working class, unemployed or juvenile.
"Remember, false allegations are often made.
"The police and other prosecuting authorities often do get things wrong.
"Innocent people are often wrongly arrested, false allegations are often made against people.
"In the future, it could be you or a member of your family or close friend who is arrested for something you or they haven't done – and it may be then that for the first time in your life, you or that other person will require the services of a criminal defence lawyer.
"Who would you want? An independent solicitor of your choice in whom you have confidence – or a poorly-paid, state-appointed lackey?"
Mr Lidster claimed that, if the proposals went through, there was a "real danger" that a person could find himself suffering the following chain of events:
Arrested by the state (police).
Prosecuted by the state (Crown Prosecution Service).
Defended by the state (state-appointed national corporate contract holder or public defender system).
Imprisoned by the state.
Detained and controlled by the state while in prison.
Supervised by the state upon release from prison.
Recalled to prison if the state deemed it appropriate.
Mr Lidster added: "The proposals will not work. One only has to look at the difficulties occurring in the National Health Service and other state-run bodies.
"The problem with the current proposals is that, if they go through, everything could descend in to inevitable total chaos.
"The system of justice will grind to a halt and there will be no independent criminal defence lawyers left in existence to sort the mess out and get the wheels of justice rolling again.
"These proposals must be nipped in the bud now before it is too late."
Mr Lidster has been representing people at Grimsby Crown Court, Grimsby Magistrates' Court and police stations in the Grimsby area for 33 years.
