On July 30th
I posted that Justice Minister Damian Green was to address a meeting the
subject of which would be “Reforming the Role of Magistrates”. Amongst my observations I wrote, “Of one
thing we can be sure: this so called “event” will be for his purpose; not for
ours”. I won`t blow my trumpet at more than a whisper because anybody with
half a deaf ear towards politicians in August would have come to a similar
conclusion.
A couple of days
ago he made that speech. Amongst his
comments were, ““However, four out of
ten defendants sent to the crown court for sentencing received custodial
sentences that could have been handed in the magistrates’ court - we need to
look at why this is happening and if we need to do more to make the best use of
magistrates. We need to keep the right cases in the right court if we are to
have a modern justice system in a fair society.” On 7th December 2010 I posted on former Justice Secretary
Jack Straw`s speech on exactly this
subject. It doesn`t require intervention
from Damian Green or any other politician for this change to take place. It merely requires advice from legal advisors
who are sometimes afraid to deviate from the safe road of conservatism in not
upsetting a preset apple cart. My
colleagues (especially those with some years service) could also be a little
more assertive and not be reticent in using our existing powers to the
maximum. Of course the obvious change to
make; a change which has been avoided for decades, is to remove a defendant`s
right to choose mode of trial in either way cases. Some effort has been made in this direction
with the recent new guidelines on “allocation” but the bull must eventually be grabbed by the
horns in the face of inevitable and illogical objections by lawyers.
With his remarks
on single magistrates overseeing low level traffic offences and “low level”
shoplifting it is plain to see that the
minister is less concerned with justice than he is with his preferred expedient
solutions attempting to save money offered
to him by the same Whitehall advisors who gave us Capita plc to provide court
interpreters amongst other wonderful innovations in court eg restricting the
availability of court ushers so that legal advisors are up and down like jacks-in-the-box
chasing all over the building for offenders, lawyers, witnesses and Uncle Tom
Cobbley and all.
It is quite
clear that underlying this speech is the government`s desire to remove Justices
of the Peace from the courtroom and put a rump magistracy out to graze in the
fields rubber-stamping traffic offenders, overseeing out of court disposals by
police and taking part in local schemes of rehabilitation and/or arbitration between
victim and offender.
If those in the
Magistrates Association charged with the interests of their members cannot see
the writing on the wall now they should
join Mr Magoo at the optician`s and have their rose coloured spectacles
surgically removed.
"With his remarks on single magistrates overseeing low level traffic offences and “low level” shoplifting it is plain to see that the minister is less concerned with justice than he is with his preferred expedient solutions"
ReplyDeleteJP's regularly sit alone in many parts of Scotland, dealing with such offences. There is no evidence from the appeal court stats that they are any more likely to make errors of judgement. And that is without the 'benefit' of sentencing guidelines.
My point is in no way referring to competence of J.P.s. The essence of my post is that there is almost certainly a long term desire to remove many of us from the court environment and for increased numbers of D.J.s and Deputies to take up the slack.
DeleteIs that cost saving? I don't see how, DJ's are expensive.
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