Court fears; You Say Email:letters@liverpoolecho.co.uk.THE plans of the justice secretary Jack Straw to pilot 'virtual courts' held in police stations begs the question how far this present government intends to go in destroying our hard fought right to liberty and justice. We have come a long way since Magna Carta Magna Carta or Magna Charta [Lat., = great charter], the most famous document of British constitutional history, issued by King John at Runnymede under compulsion from the barons and the church in June, 1215. but now it appears that we are freewheeling back in every direction to autocratic state control of our lives. Arrested by the police, if you are not then cautioned or let off with a fixed penalty which is the way of so many crimes today, you will be whisked into the interview room after a short telephone conversation with a duty solicitor In the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries, a duty solicitor (or, in Canada, a duty counsel) is a solicitor whose services are available to a person either suspected of, or charged with, a criminal offence free of charge (pro bono many miles away and then sentenced on video link by magistrates equally far away. Alongside throughout, and no doubt presenting an intimidating presence, will be your arresting police officer to whom you may be handcuffed if you present, in this secure police station, an escape risk. The risk of injustice to the elderly, disabled and infirm INFIRM. Weak, feeble. 2. When a witness is infirm to an extent likely to destroy his life, or to prevent his attendance at the trial, his testimony de bene esge may be taken at any age. 1 P. Will. 117; see Aged witness.; Going witness. , never mind persons of reasonable fortitude, is considered acceptable in terms of the consequential saving in expense and time. What price Justice? David Kirwan, prospective Independent MP for Wirral West |
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