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When the market fails, should the state defend you in court?
ONE response Stormont could take to the criminal barristers’ strike that began last week would be to establish a public defender office.
Scotland did this in 1998, and the Republic has been actively considering it since 2020.
Pubic defenders are lawyers employed directly by the state to defend people accused of a crime, just as public prosecutors perform the opposite function.
The Scottish model is the commonest worldwide. Its Public Defence Solicitors’ Office (PDSO) is a network of lawyers employed by Scotland’s legal aid agency, itself a non-ministerial government department, so independence is protected and nobody need be concerned about being defended by the same authorities that are prosecuting them.
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