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Solicitors united in protest over legal aid plans

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GRIMSBY solicitors joined colleagues from all over the country in staging a minute's silence to mark what they claim is the "death of client choice".

A large number of solicitors and members of their staff stood on the steps of Grimsby Magistrates' Court for a protest to mark the end of a Government consultation period over proposed legal aid changes.

They oppose proposals which could mean there are just four legal aid contracts for criminal defence firms in the whole of the Humberside region, which spans Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Hull, Beverley and Bridlington.

They claim it would mean defendants could end up having to be represented by Hull firms who know nothing about them. Solicitors would also have to cover a massive area, including police stations and courts.

Solicitor Ed Bates, of Beetenson and Gibbon, said: "The protest is an act of solidarity in response to the Government's continued reckless cuts to the funding and reorganisation of the way criminal justice will be administered.

"It puts in real danger how the rights of individuals will be safeguarded."

Graham Ives, of Bates and Mountain, said: "I have been in practice as a criminal defence advocate in the Grimsby and Cleethorpes court for more than 40 years and I fully support the comments of my colleagues in the Grimsby Telegraph on Saturday.

"We have in this country a criminal justice system to be proud of and in which, I believe, the public has full confidence.

"It has evolved and developed over several centuries.

"If these proposals are implemented, I believe that our criminal justice system would be dismantled and severely damaged. If this happens, it will not be possible to go back to the situation we are in today.

"I sincerely hope, therefore, that the Justice Secretary and his department will rethink and amend these proposals."

Action by solicitors in Grimsby over proposed legal aid changes has already seen them missing court to take part in a training day, which meant that their clients, including some in custody, had to represent themselves in court.

Some even had to make their own bail applications because their solicitors were not in court.


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Solicitors united in  protest over legal aid plans


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