Poor Prisoners, Defence Of

Poor Prisoners, Defence of. The (English) Poor Prisoners Defence Act, 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5, c. 32), repealing the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act, 1903, entitles any person to free legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his defence at the trial and to have solicitor and counsel assigned to him for that purpose, if a certificate, called the 'defence certificate,' is granted by the justices committing him for trial or of the judge or chairman of the court before which he is to be tried, at any time after reading the depositions. The certificate is grantable only 'when it appears to the certifying authority that his means are insufficient to enable him to obtain such aid, and must be granted in respect of any person committeed for trial on a charge of murder, and may be granted when a person committed for trial upon any other charge, if it appears to the authority, having regard to all the circumstances of the case (including the nature of such defence, if any, as may have been set up) that it is desirable in the interests of justice that he should have legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his defence at the trial. Rules for carrying the act into effect may be made by the Attorney-General, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor and a Secretary of State, and regula-tions as to scales of payment may be made by a Secretary of State. For the Regulations, Report of House of Commons Select Committee on the Bill which became the Act, and notes on the Act, see Chitty's Statutes.

Criminal Appeal.'The (English) Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, provides (s. 10) as follows:-

10. The Court of Criminal Appeal may at anytime assign to an appellant a solicitor and counsel, or counsel only, in any appeal or proceedings preliminary or incidental to an appeal in which, in the opinion of the Court, it appears desirable in the interests of justice that the appellant should have legal aid, and that he has not sufficient means to enable him to obtain that aid.