It is long overdue for changes to be made to our legal system with regard to the role of defence lawyers - whether they be barristers or solicitors.
Clearly, it is the role of the prosecutor to pursue those, already heavily filtered by both Police and the CPS, in order to gain the conviction of those reasonably believed to be guilty of an offence.
Naturally, defence lawyers who believe in the innocence of their client have, at this point, already gained the benefits of this significant filtering process. Many unconvicted and untried criminals will have also gained from this exercise.
With a colossal percentage of the remaining clients who face court being clearly guilty - defence briefs can hardly claim equivalent moral high ground to that of the person prosecuting with regard to any defendant who cannot reasonably be believed to be innocent.
Never let us forget that the vast majority of acquitted defendants are not innocent but merely not guilty.
Against this backcloth, reasonable behaviour by defending solicitors and barristers should obviously never be to try to thwart justice by seeing a guilty client acquitted or under-sentenced.
Their function must simply be to ensure that their client receives justice and and a wholly fair outcome.
The prosecutor wants a fair outcome. More often than I dare suggest, the defence brief does not.
