Resistance
In the face of the claimed pressures, the majority of lawyers - 33 out of the 35 - were resolute that they fought to resist these for the clients.
Pressures from the court were, apparently, easier to overcome.
Several lawyers talked proudly of ‘standing up' to the courts, as represented by statements such as the following:You have a duty to your client. You have a duty to the court, of course, but if the court is putting undue pressure on you to do something too quickly which is not in the interests ofyour client, whilst not being disrespectful, you are perfectly entitled to stand up and say that, ‘this is not the way it should be done'. We do that quite frequently.
(Harold, partner, Radford Hope, INT)
I think you have to be fairly robust. And I think you have to stand up to situations more... Courts making requirements of you that are, actually, not in the interests of your client, but are consistent with your code of conduct. In other words, you’re not doing anything that is unethical and you’re not doing anything that is not appropriate but the court requires expedition and therefore occasionally you just have to say: ‘Actually, no’. And a simple ‘no’ actually works.
(Bobby, partner, Sosig and Sage, INT)
In the light of these problems, lawyers talked of their developing alternative coping methods. A good example of this was in relation to CJSSS’s encouragement of early pleas, as explained below:
You have to stand your ground. There’s been occasions where you are pushed into such a corner that there’s no way - you know someone perhaps needs to plead guilty and you to have to advise them to enter a guilty plea, but you’re pushed into such a corner that you have to enter a not guilty plea just to allow yourselfsome time to perhaps listen to interview tapes and do a basis of plea. We’re not provided with the papers before court...
often the CJSSS [Criminal Justice: Simple, Speedy, Summary] packs don’t have everything we need to have anyway, and we’re getting pressure on to enter pleas at the first opportunity - but to do so, I think you could be bordering on negligence if you allow your clients to do that, especially entering a guilty plea, which is why, ifpushed, ifthe magistrate won’t back down and they won’t listen to reason, you enter a not guilty plea then change your plea later on.(Laura, solicitor, Swining MacSage, INT)
However, their accounts suggested that the pressures of legal aid appeared more difficult to resolve and thus exerted the greatest force. Some non-solicitor lawyers were adamant that they would simply ignore such pressures and provide the ideal service to the client:
I don’t find the way in which I do my job has changed at all. If you’ve got a case that requires extra time because you’ve got a client with special needs, or needs a bit of extra attention, you take that time. It certainly hasn’t changed the way in which I deal with clients. A client deserves the time they need. I still give the clients the service I gave them before; I’m not going to change that. That should never change. That’s why I do this job, it’s why I do a good job and I don’t want the client to be short-changed simply because we’re only getting paid x amount for being there. Some clients still need a bit more TLC and you need more time to go over things.
(Maddie, police station clerk, Radcliffe and Musk, INT)
Solicitors, though, declined to express such stubbornness. It did not appear that they viewed this as a viable option. Police station clerks were only expected to deal with one case at a time and in-house barristers at Crown Court did not have the long lists of the Magistrates’ Court, so each could spend more time with clients. In addition, they were also more likely to be involved over the life of a case. Both were able to maintain a greater level of contact than were solicitors.
In place of outright resistance, a handful of solicitors suggested that they were able to adapt to the circumstances of reduced contact and access. They offered their experience and skills picked up over years of practice, as in the following:
I've been in business for such a long time that I'm a lot quicker working than somebody who's new to it or newer to it. And so I can pick up a set of papers and go straight to the important part of it... the tendency is to try and pick up a case at court, look at the papers and try to advise your client, all at the same time, in say 15 or 20 minutes, that could lead to bad advice being given. I'm possibly more skilled at it than other people because I've been doing it for so long.
(Windom, solicitor, Swining MacSage, INT)
Experienced lawyers like myself, and there are loads of us, can deal with that because we don't need to do an awful lot, we've read the papers quickly; we know pretty much what it is about.
(Mike, senior partner, Radison and Muddle, INT)
Following this, most lawyers appeared to take the view that clients, in turn, also had to adapt to circumstances of contact and access that were not ideal. By this line, the clients had to trust that lawyers were attempting to work ‘in their best interests'.
On the issue of behaviour, then, lawyers from all firms presented an image of a healthy lawyer-client relationship. They discussed the importance of good contact and access arrangements in demonstrating respect for clients. Lawyers identified problems in maintaining these arrangements but professed the intention of overcoming them as best they could. In the following section, I present data from the participation observation that paints a rather different picture.
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