“Lawyers who defended the men prosecuted for a plot to kill thousands of innocent people using massive fertilizer bombs were paid £7.16m in legal aid, it emerged last night. The 2007 trial was one of the biggest in British legal history and followed raids by the Metropolitan Police across London and the Home Counties. The judge described five of the men convicted for their part in the foiled terror attack as ruthless and devious misfits who had betrayed their country of birth.” Two other defendants won acquittal. [The Independent]
2 Comments
This, of course, is why lawyers insist that the cost of the law — they say justice, of course, but that’s just advertising — cannot be stinted. Ther eis no sacrifice too great — so long as it go into rather than out of their pockets.
Remember when ‘pro bono’ meant that the lawyer took the case for love of justice with no hope of monetary return? Or is that just something out of fiction?
Bob
Let’s see–a full year of trial, each of seven defendants having to be separately represented, experts and investigators paid out of this for each one, over 3500 witness statements, and over 105 prosecution witnesses. It was certainly an expensive trial, but it seems to be the basic cost of providing a competent defense with adequate resources to criminal defendants.