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We must stop practice of charging the defence to see scientific evidence

THE defence solicitor is one of the last barriers between the state and the individual.

Like healthcare (provided "free"), it is vital that when it is most needed legal representation and advice should be provided. It is acknowledges that there isn't much public, and hence political, support for legal aid. The fact that it is used sometimes to defend the apparently indefensible creates an unfortunate image of public funds being used to "get the guilty off". That may be so, but there is a phrase in business that "80% of advertising is wasted, the problem is we don't know which 80%". The difficulty in criminal justice is that we simply do not know what part is "wasted" until the trial is over, but the "not-wasted" part prevents the punishment of the innocent.

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Finance

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