LETTER: Court costs deplete legal aid fund

Sir: The item Another View (2 February) by Peter Berts QC, on the quotation of the costs of the Maxwell case, prompts me to mention a point that has so far gone unremarked.

The Lord Chancellor has issued a directive to the effect that where a legally aided defendant is acquitted, his costs are not to be paid, generally, by the prosecution. This is contrary to the general rule regarding awards of costs and, indeed, if a non-legally aided defendant is acquitted, he or she normally receives an award of costs against the prosecution.

The result of this is that if the Maxwell brothers are acquitted, the legal aid fund will still have to stand the expense of their defence. The legal aid fund, which will have been heavily depleted, will, in effect, have subsidised the unsuccessful operations of the SFO and Crown Prosecution Service.

Yours faithfully, A. J. Rylands Whitby, North Yorkshire 2 February