This article explores the effects of changes to legally aided representation on criminal cases in magistrates' courts according to data collected in an area of south-east England. I consider the political factors that motivated changes to legal aid and suggest how these issues affecting lawyers' understanding of their role, and how that understanding affects the relationships between defendants, lawyers, and the magistrates' courts. I argue that the research indicates a potential relation between solicitors' risk-taking behaviour in obtaining funding and the reintroduction of means testing: remuneration rates affect the service that defendants receive and the reintroduction of means testing decreased efficiency in summary criminal courts.

Judges and lawyers must regard themselves as upholding cherished values, including the presumption of innocence; free defendant choice and participation; and attention to the unique individual. Yet, everyday criminal work also demands compliance with a system of perfunctory, mass case disposal. How is this potential contradiction addressed? Conceiving the criminal-penal process as a tripartite rite of passage, the article originates the concept of`Ritual Individualization' (RI). RI's creative pre-sentencing casework accomplishes four key transformations in how the person is re-presented to the court for sentencing. First, the person's unique voice and personal story is revealed, exhibiting her as a freely participating individual. Secondly, in doing so, the pertinence of social disadvantage tends to be minimized. Thirdly, ambiguous admissions of guilt are translated as freely-given, full, and sincere confessions. Fourthly, the person is manifested as a culpable offender ready for punishment. The article considers new research agendas opened up by the implications of Ritual Individualization. 112

Article (Accepted Version) http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Newman, Daniel and Welsh, Lucy (2019) The practices of modern criminal defence lawyers: alienation and its implications for access to justice. Common Law World Review, 48 (1-2). pp. 64-89.

Criminal Justice provides a comprehensive overview of the criminal justice system in England and Wales (excluding punishment), as well as thought-provoking insights into how it might be altered and improved and research that might be needed to help accomplish this. Tracing the procedures surrounding the appre-hension, investigation, trial and appeal against conviction of suspected offenders, this book is the ideal com-panion for law and criminology students alike. As the authors combine the relevant legislation with fresh research findings and policy initiatives, the resulting text is a fascinating blend of socio-legal analysis. Whilst retaining its authoritative treatment of the issues at the heart of criminal justice, the book has been fully updated with recent developments, including terrorism legislation and the initial Covid-related restrictions introduced in early-mid 2020. In this, the book’s 5th edition: two experienced new co-authors, Dr Layla Skinns and Dr Lucy Welsh, join Andrew Sanders (Richard Young having decided, 25+ years after the 1st edition, to do other things); the text features chapter summaries and selected further reading lists to support the student and encourage further research; the content of the book has been fully updated to include coverage of new legislation, case law, research and policy developments; and the text is enriched by the new authors’ specialist research into accountability, police custody, magistrates’ courts and criminal legal aid. The theoretical structure of the earlier editions is retained, but developed further by consideration of ‘core values’ in criminal justice and the impact of neoliberalism.

This chapter pulls together some of the issues mentioned in earlier chapters through a specific lens of inequality. The chapter highlights key areas of inequality in the criminal process by focusing on class, race and sex, but identifies intersections with a broader range of marginalised populations where information exists (and points to the need for research where the information does not yet exist). It discusses what we mean by inequality; key areas in which inequality in relation to class, race and sex manifest and intersect; inequity manifested in the criminal law; inequality as it manifests in policing; inequality as it manifests through sentencing; inequality experienced by victims; hate crimes; and ways that inequality could be reassessed and evaluated through discourses of rights and belonging.