Thanks to the popularity of American legal dramas, most people are familiar with the US public defender system, which provides a lawyer for any defendant who cannot afford one. Far fewer know that since 2001 there has been a small public defender service in England and Wales. It provides representation from the police station through to the courts.
The obscure Public Defender Service (PDS) is funded through the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), which is part of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and administers publicly funded legal advice and representation. It has offices in Cheltenham, Darlington, Pontypridd and Swansea, which are staffed by 22 solicitors and six police station representatives. Four others have shut.
In 2014, as barristers refused to act in some trials because of
