This
blog seems to be becoming repetitive. However when the same story is
repeated virtually every time one steps into the courtroom what else
can one do but relate the story. I have no reason whatever to think
that the experiences at my court are in any way different from courts
all over England and Wales serving a suburban ethnically mixed
population. We are being encouraged to take charge of the case
management form at the first listing.......oops..... it`s now termed the
pre trial form......Don`t those w****** in Petty France have anything
else to do with their time than rename forms or procedures? But to
get back to basics; I have no objection at all to magistrates
taking greater responsibility for what goes on in the courts that
still bear their name; indeed I am a proponent of just such actions
but I am wary when or if we are being set up to take the fall if
things go wrong. When it comes to the time estimates which now must
be listed for every witness it seems that the reasoning is to have
a foundation which justifies over listing. Generally, however, the
L/A suggests the required time to allocate. If a defendant is unable
to confirm that s/he will be represented there is IMHO not enough
additional time allocated. If s/he requires an interpreter the
additional time is often underestimated.
My
last sitting was completely in disarray owing to statutory
declarations keeping us occupied from 9.45a.m. until 10.40a.m.
followed by an unrepresented defendant applying for an adjournment in
a case with a history of previous gaps in chronology. The result was
that the first of our two trials listed was not completed until 1.30
p.m. and the other was necessarily re listed for September two police
officers, a complainant and a defendant having to suffer a wasted
morning.
It
is well known that NHS hospital beds are running at around 98%
occupancy cf the 80%+ in many European countries. Some call this
efficiency. But this “efficiency” is akin to running your petrol
tank to the flashing light before filling up. If things go wrong one
can be stranded out of gas in a country road at midnight. In due
course the statistics of wasted, cracked and ineffective trials will
be published and a gloss painted over them. Ask those actually
involved and the responses will not be fit to to be published except
by a series of expletives.