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| Photo: BBC |
A bit of a plate-spinner here, pre-scheduled. I⁴'ve been meaning to open this one up for a while now but, well, events.
So: judge-only trials for criminal offences? OK, Lammy isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer [1] but then again, Justice Delayed is Justice Denied; and the backlog in the courts is appalling. Balancing the system by waiting for victims and witnesses to lose heart (or die) is no way to dispense justice. The guilty go free by default and simple delaying tactics.
But hey, if it's me in the dock, there are circumstances in which I probably want a jury; and I think most people agree. And, although it's strictly irrelevant to the criminal cases I'm most concerned with, I was once party to a massive civil case in the commercial courts which in the USA would have been heard by a jury, and (all parties agreed [2]) would definitely have gone only one way - but here, being heard only by a single judge, it went the other way on a judicial whim over an odd technicality, and required overturning at Appeal.
I reckon we know where the blame lies, not least in the shocking reduction in funding for the CJS by the Tories: and covid didn't help; nor the latitude given to defence lawyers to waste time - one of the juries I sat on (a murder trial) saw some remarkable time-wasting being accommodated, albeit testily, by the judge. Somebody has to address the situation, somehow - under whatever leadership.
So what can we agree on?
- truly, the backlog has got to be addressed decisively
- we've long ago sold the pass on really nasty terrorist cases (N.Ireland, where the threat to juries is chillingly real - and that might spread across more of the realm in years to come, you don't need me to paint the scenarios)
- having sat on three juries, I tremble at the thought of jury trials for complex cases of fraud & the like
- hey, I'm an old soldier and know all about summary justice at first hand: it has to be a very serious offence before it gets anywhere near a Court Martial [3]
- so like taxation, it's already happened, & how much more in future is all a matter of degree
What else then, does t'readership think on this most critical of issues for a society supposedly built on the rule of law? [4]
ND
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[1] And nowadays it seems to be OK to point this out: everyone else does. This has surprised me somewhat. I had several accounts of what a good impression Lammy made in a handful of trips to the USA in 2023/24. But there we have it - by common consent, the man's a laughing stock. Pity he's in charge of this difficult issue.
[2] So clear was this to all concerned that the party which won at First Instance was desperate to have the case heard in England, and they succeeded. Conversely, the other party had tried equally desperately to have it heard in the USA. Some $400m was at stake.
[3] For any US readers, in the British Armed Forces we don't term regimental-level justice a 'CM': it's a term reserved for full military trials with defence counsel etc. (No juries, though: an experienced panel.) At the regimental level or below ('CO's Orders' or 'OC's Orders'), evidence is taken, but it's summary justice, CO = judge-and-jury. As my first Sergeant Major explained, the process is straightforward: "March the guilty party in. Find the guilty party 'Guilty'. March the guilty party out." GP will be invited to elect for CM, but it never happens: Sergeant Major makes sure of that, too. Oh no, son, you don't want that. You definitely don't want that.
[4] I shan't open up an episode of History Corner on you - Henrys I and II, Edward I, and Henry VII
13 comments:
Tell the judges and the lawyers that some will be hanged every month until the backlog is cleared. That would work a treat. We'd just have to accept the booing by the population when the hangings ceased.
This isn't just an issue in the criminal courts, the Trade Marks Registry operates as a Tribunal to give a first-instance decision on competing claims to a trade mark right. They are currently looking at delays of about a year to two years in holding hearings (before a single judge-equivalent) and issuing decisions. I'm seeing clients drop perfectly good claims to a trade mark simply due to the delay and uncertainty that will inevitably follow.
There is no sign of a jury in the Registry, and there never has been. So Lammy's proposal seems like a convenient excuse to get rid of juries with no real prospect of that making an improvement. To dispose of the case, we will still need to hold a trial, provide a judge, call the witnesses, and put up with lawyers making applications that look like delaying tactics. No-one has explained to me why not having to have a jury will make all these things much easier.
Maybe we need to address the actual problem?
Just think, a few decades ago I could have said "They order these matters better in Scotland". After years of devolved government I suspect it's unlikely still to be true.
I’m ambivalent either way as to the, erm, merits of this case.
Juries can be just as fickle and prone to deciding on things like how defendants look and talk, lawyers’ bedside manners and judge direction as anything they heard in evidence.
Same, apparently, with the ETs.
The public sector has collectively decided since Covid that despite it getting handsomely paid, both in salaries now and pensions later, they don't want to do any work. The private sector isn't much better, but there's a bit more whip shown there, that has stopped things degenerating to the extent they have in the public sector. Thats the problem that needs addressing, not jury trials. Solve the problem of the fact that we (the taxpayers) pay stupendous amount of money to the public sector and get the square root of SFA in return, and the problems of the criminal justice system will solve itself.
Said Lummy said a few years back that Jury trials were a cornerstone of British justice (or words to that effect).
Proving that these chumps believe in2 thingls only.
Themselves and power.
Everything's gone.
A few years back, when the estate we live on noted they would be closing down some paths - not public ones, but ones that had been used by locals for decades, I got in touch with Somerset CC about this.
They said we had every right to claim them as public footpaths. Sadly, the backlog on this was about 15 years, so don't bother.
Similarly, Mendip DC when still active, had TWO planning officers dealing with breaches. After a certain time, breaches were waved and the plans were OKed by default.
The still half built old telephone exchange, which the PC launched objections to some 10 years ago is still being worked on...
Time to understand. The public sector is FUBAR. Just costs more and more in return for less and less....
Went to make a GP appt yesterday. NHS login. They have my old phone number. Wouldn't work. Option to change it. Did so. Tried again. Still referenced the old one.
Not to mention I asked them to record my new one a few months when I went in for a blood test.
I sincerely believe the Digital ID will be a catastrophe. The government are incapable of joined up IT. They prove that again and again.
"The government are incapable of joined up IT. They prove that again and again."
Google or Palantir would love love love it, but would steal all the data then offer HMG their new Panopticon system - everyone tracked all the time with behavioural and browsing cues to spot you even when you're on a burner phone. Pretty much in place already.
Be interesting to see how good the new Companies House ID system is at weeding out the baddies.
Anon @ 9:22 - that murder trial I mentioned in the post: it was a big one (gang warfare) and we got to see the full Panopticon on display.
Not only is every SIM card tracked, but every 'phone shell and every call (metadata, not content). And every taxi, including Uber etc. And all calls to taxis (incl content). And hotels. And we saw CCTV from >40 cameras, including about 6 that captured the actual battle. In full colour, some with sound.
And this was 5 years ago...
Obviously this capability is reserved for the Big Occasion: no chance if you've just had your car nicked, of course.
The Companies House ID system is beyond stupid. It relies on an Experian Credit Check to decide if you are real. I have been debt free for 17 years and don't use any credit. Even though I have a passport, (travelled to Korea and Japan last year), and have lived in the same house for 30 years, (hence we still have paper driving licenses), I couldn't verify my identity. Neither could my wife, who is an SEN teacher working for local government. I ended up closing down my company rather than pay ongoing £10,000 fines for our not being "identified". I have retired early rather than being a productive tax-payer because of this stupidity.
Three main problems - the input side has too many to cope with, the processing takes too long and the output side does not deter new offenders.
System captured by lawyers with consequent decline in productivity. Old Bailey used to do 15-20 cases/day with a single jury. Australia, the noose, smallpox and cholera reduced the output problem.
Easy to think up more and nastier penal systems. But a bit of thought tells us the problem is political. The politicians will go for whatever system gives them the least aggravation - objections, legal challenges, banner waving, loss of votes, cost.
A look in the DM/DT/Sun gives a clue. Our elite classes and our slapper classes are doing very well. Off to Ascot and Dubai on our dime. All kinds of fraud and dodgy dealing seems to make £££££££. Only fools and horses work. So why not sell drugs, lift shops, diddle the benefits. Do the things that our government encourages and rewards.
The system has been drifting this way for >30 years. Housing and education have been in decline. No use saying 'we have more degrees', sure but they do us little good. Not just because of grade inflation but because we have nothing new that yields a new economy and what little we have must be shared with 8Bn other people.
We seem to be returning to a Georgian society but with no empire, the private equity firms and mega companies making like bandits with the whiff of corruption attached, the middling classes desperate for 'a position' and the lower class may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. 'Cept we chucked away the rope. Meanwhile government is largely an irrelevance and has to suck up to the top and bottom to stay in a job.
My solution - you get a magistrate or a judge and three citizens followed by a guilty verdict followed by 5 to 20 minutes treatment with 1 inch staves delivered by 2 to 4 hearty psychopaths. No benefits or compo and buy your own wheelchair. Everyone.
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