Piecemeal reform of the criminal justice system – a vital public
service – will not tackle the court backlogs, the Law Society of
England and Wales has warned ahead of the second reading of the
Courts and Tribunals Bill tomorrow (10 March).
“A fair, coordinated, whole-system approach, including sustained
investment in the workforce, infrastructure and technology, is
needed to restore confidence in this vital public service,” said
immediate past president of the Law Society Richard Atkinson.
“The UK government must also reduce the overall volume of
cases entering the system and take action to resolve persistent
failures of prisoners being brought to court on time.
“There are no quick fixes. The government must avoid implementing
stand-alone measures that risk diminishing fairness and trust in
the system, such as changing from jury trials to judge-alone,
particularly without convincing evidence they will bring the
backlog down significantly.
“Piecemeal reforms accompanied by isolated injections
of funding will not be enough to restore this vital public
service back to health.”
Ahead of the second reading of the Courts and Tribunals Bill, the
Law Society said:
- Removing a defendant's right to elect jury
trial and moving to judge-only
hearings are significant departures from Sir Brian
Leveson's recommendations and we oppose them
- The government's modelling does not provide good enough
evidence that judge-only trials would reduce the backlogs
- If the government insists on implementing the Crown Court
Bench division, this radical change proposed by Sir Brian of a
judge sitting with two magistrates should be tested by a pilot
against the twin objectives of ensuring trials are
fair and reducing the backlogs
- Retrospectively removing the right to jury trial to
defendants already in the system will lead to legal challenges
causing further delay and uncertainty for victims and defendants
- The Bill will result in more unrepresented defendants in the
magistrates' courts unless the legal aid means test there is
levelled up with that for the Crown Court
- Retaining large volumes of cases in the
magistrates' courts will result in
lower remuneration for criminal legal aid solicitors,
putting further pressure on already fragile legal aid firms.
This is despite the claim in the
impact assessment that there will be no impact on small
firms
Notes to editors
