MP's receive free legal Aid

[rov1200]

Should the 3 Labour MP's charged with their false expenses be given FREE legal aid?

http://news.bbc.co.uk...tion_2010/8616261.stm

[milliezoe]

NO WAY SLING THEM IN JAIL !!!!!!!!!

[jackthehat]

I have just seen this flashed on the news-channels and would dearly love to know how the chuffing-heck they all qualify for Legal Aid...............

[sandyRoe]

I always thought that Legal Aid depended on whether you had money or not. These MP's seem to have quite a lot of our money.

[Everhelpful]

What else did you expect in this Country.Let the ordinary working man try and get it and see what happens.

[Sqad]

Legal aid is "means tested" but not in that area apparently and if convicted, they MAY be asked to pay it back.

[barney15c]

"Officials applied the "interests of justice" test to determine whether the MPs should receive legal aid.

The test says that if a defendant is at risk of losing his or her liberty - that is, they could go to prison if convicted - then they are entitled to legal representation paid for by the state.

The "interests of justice" test began to be phased out in January and replaced by a means test for all Crown Court cases in England and Wales - but Southwark Crown Court is not yet part of the new scheme, so it did not apply to the MPs.

However, if the MPs are convicted the trial judge could order them to pay back all or some of the costs of the case.

Their legal teams have done thie homework to find one of the few courts where this scheme does not apply, if this is so why? it should be across the whole court system. They are truly a bunch of lying untrustworthy shiesters, as they tried to hide behind parliamentry priviledge at first to get away with this. Is it no wonder that people dont trust politicians and that the likes of BNP are starting to worm their way into the political system because people dont know what way to turn? Another outrage that wil l be brushed aside no doubt.

[KaiHallarn111]

The way they have been behaving, it looks as though they (the Labour MP's) need all the help they can get, but considering they've taken enough of the tax payers money to date, they should at least pay for their own legal team out of their own pockets. It's the least they could do, all things considering

[trt]

Thanks for that interesting info squad & barney, didnt know about the means testing.

[barney15c]

It occured to me, that surely if they are claiming legal aid, are they allowed to retain their own lawyers ,on legal aid rates (I am assuming they cant claim £1000's a day fees if they were being hired privately by the mp's) or do they get appointed legal aid funded lawyers. Does anyone know??

[birdie1971]

The hypocrisy of using public funds to defend the accusation of misappropriating public funds is breathtaking.

If these MPs are found guilty, I do sincerely hope that they are made to pay back every single penny they received in Legal Aid.

[fredpuli47]

barney, they have the right to choose any lawyer they like who is prepared to accept this legal aid work. This is no bar to their getting the best. If criminal law barristers did only privately paid work they'd soon starve !

It is a serious breach of the profession's rules for counsel to accept a legal aid case and be paid extra by the lay client. Mind, that's not to say it's unknown !