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Standing Accused: The Organisation and Practices of Criminal Defence Lawyers in Britain - Couverture rigide

Livre 4 sur 55: Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice

McConville, Mike; Hodgson, Jacqueline; Bridges, Lee; Pavlovic, Anita

 
9780198258681: Standing Accused: The Organisation and Practices of Criminal Defence Lawyers in Britain
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0198258682 ISBN 13 : 9780198258681
Editeur : Clarendon Press, 1994

Synopsis

Criminal cases are commonly seen as a fight between adversaries of equal strength: the intrusive power of the State versus skilled defence lawyers advocating their clients' cause. The reality, according to this major new study, is rather different. The provision of defence counsel is often rudimentary and unsatisfactory.

Based on one of the largest studies of legal professional practice ever undertaken, involving nearly fifty solicitors' firms, this book offers a critical examination of the practices and organization of defence lawyers in Britain. The authors show how defence lawyers discharge their obligations to clients from the moment of initial contact with clients through to the routine preparation and representation of defendants in both Magistrates' and Crown Courts. For the first time, this study reveals the role of paralegals and unqualified staff in providing defence assistance, and highlights how their inexperience and assumption of the client's guilt can critically undermine defendants' rights.

The deficiencies highlighted by their research lead the authors to question the effectiveness of recent liberal and managerial reforms, with their excessive reliance on market-led considerations. The authors propose a cultural transformation in criminal defence work, a reassertion of the defendants' rights within an adversarial system, and offer constructive suggestions for improving defence services.

Extensively researched and documented, this study is a major contribution to current debates about the criminal justice system, and as such will be required reading for all lawyers, scholars, and professionals interested in the administration of justice.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Revue de presse

Disturbing conclusions ... Standing Accused is powerful evidence of the extent to which the client is dependent on lawyers ... the book identifies fundamental concerns about the provision of legal service which need to be addressed. (David Pannick QC, The Times)

The book really is compulsive reading for anyone engaged in criminal defence work. (The Lawyer)

Standing Accused makes out a prima facie case against the existing arrangements, calls into question the roseate view commonly taken of the virtues of legal representation in criminal cases, and that anyone who reads this book will be driven to ponder further the professional standards and philosophy which ought to underpin a system of criminal defence. It is a significant and unsettling work. (Cambridge Law Journal)

Standing Accused is powerful evidence of the extent to which the client is dependent on Lawyers ... the book identifies fundamental concerns about the provision of legal service which need to be addressed. (The Times)

a compelling and characteristically provocative research report which is a credit to all concerned: the researchers and authors for their hard work, and Oxford University Press for conceiving its Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice series sufficiently broadly to include empirical studies ... Standing Accused is an impressive and disturbing work which will intrigue and entertain and dismay the reader ... It does ... stand a good chance of becomming a sociological classic; and in the meantime the book's accessible style and intelligent use of vivid empirical material ought to commend it to a wider audience than the "lawyers, scholars and professionals interested in the administration of justice" for whom the publishers (justifiably) assert that Standing Accused is compulsory reading (Law Quarterly Review)

This is a timely, important and salutary book. (LCCJ Newsletter)

Présentation de l'éditeur

Criminal cases are commonly seen as a fight between adversaries of equal strength: the intrusive power of the State versus skilled defence lawyers advocating their clients' cause. The reality, according to this major new study, is rather different. The provision of defence counsel is often rudimentary and unsatisfactory. Based on one of the largest studies of legal professional practice ever undertaken, involving nearly fifty solicitors' firms, this book offers a critical examination of the practices and organization of defence lawyers in Britain. The authors show how defence lawyers discharge their obligations to clients from the moment of initial contact with clients through to the routine preparation and representation of defendants in both Magistrates' and Crown Courts. For the first time, this study reveals the role of paralegals and unqualified staff in providing defence assistance, and highlights how their inexperience and assumption of the client's guilt can critically undermine defendants' rights. The deficiencies highlighted by their research lead the authors to question the effectiveness of recent liberal and managerial reforms, with their excessive reliance on market-led considerations. The authors propose a cultural transformation in criminal defence work, a reassertion of the defendants' rights within an adversarial system, and offer constructive suggestions for improving defence services. Extensively researched and documented, this study is a major contribution to current debates about the criminal justice system, and as such will be required reading for all lawyers, scholars, and professionals interested in the administration of justice.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Clarendon Press
Date d'édition
1994
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0198258682
ISBN 13 
9780198258681
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
328
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie
ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it

Via Verdi, 8
Assago Milano
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Italie