Criminal Defence Service Direct (CDS Direct), the Legal Services Commission’s (LSC’s) telephone advice service for suspects held in police stations, is to be expanded.
From October, people held in police stations in the Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire criminal justice areas will receive legal aid advice over the telephone for all charges involving less serious offences.
Controversially, the service will expand to cover “own client” work situations where a client requests a specific solicitor or firm. Depending on feedback from this pilot, the service will then be rolled out to the rest of England and Wales in early 2008.
According to LSC estimates, this will shave 5% off fee income for 95% of criminal law firms. In the three pilot areas, all calls from police stations will be routed through the duty solicitor call centre and CDS Direct will handle advice for less serious offences, eg driving with excess alcohol and failure to give a specimen and non-imprisonable offences such as fare evasion. For more serious offences, the call will be passed to either the duty solicitor or a specific
