I think you may also be talking about court-appointed counsel, and oftentimes, if the defendant does not have legal aid, the case cannot proceed and you can't get a conviction against the person. In that case, the judge will sometimes order one level of government or another to pay the costs of legal aid or the legal defence of that person. Oftentimes, that is not necessarily consistent with the legal aid tariff, and if the bills are excessive, it causes some concern. It's an interesting problem and is one that certainly needs to be addressed.
On October 18th, 2006. See this statement in context.