JUST A FEW COMMENTS

This morning with little legal news that I thought worthy of comment I scanned the Branch pages of the Magistrates Association`s recently revamped website.  Below are a few of the comments which might cause just a flicker of interest.

"Appraisals.

We are in discussions over winger appraisers being able to appraise Chairman in the Adult, Family and Youth Court. The Committee feel that an winger appraiser, who does exactly the same appraiser training course as a chair, should be able to appraise the competencies required, in fact are sometimes in a better position to do that as a winger.  If you have any comments or would like to get in touch, my contact details are below."

"John Hayward then spoke of developments and issues of interest at the MA. The 4 constituent parts of the MA are:

1.Its future: There must be on going debate about the future of the magistracy. The MA does not support the idea of a fixed 10-year term for magistrates. The proposal has been watered down and Lord Leveson is compiling a review that should result in more work going to the Magistrates’ Court rather than the Crown Court."

"1.    Reports:  All the reports had been sent to the MA to be posted on the Branch Pages, but this had not been done and the branch pages could not be accessed on the new MA website. Brief report were given to the meeting and members were told if they wanted the full reports to contact the secretary and she would email them out."

"·  New Magistrates' Induction Evening

• Date: 9 September, 2015 
• Time: 00:00 " 

"Our Key Tasks are:
>To provide Annual Training for Branch members
>To develop ways for members to meet socially
>To develop a social group for supplemental magistrates."

"We will all do whatever it takes to support members in every aspect of their involvement in the Magistrates' Association and the magistracy."

"Branch events

·         TBC

• Date: 1 January, 1970
• Time: 00:00" 
• 
  

"No contested nominations were received for any post ahead of the meeting."

"Miss S had the opportunity to talk to the MA membership secretary and confirm that they were altering their approach to members who were retiring by contacting them much earlier in an attempt to retain their membership. The need to retain the membership of retiring members in view of the limited level of recruitment of magistrates continues to be one of the MAs main objectives."



 "At present the membership is 279 and represents just <50% of the  Bench"

AD NAUSEAM AT THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE PRESS OFFICE

It seems the penny has finally dropped........upon the editors of this country`s national media; that the criminal justice system is crumbling at its roots these roots being magistrates` courts where over 90% of criminal matters begin and are concluded.  Since 2010 when the first court closures began there would be an occasional protest in a local newspaper serving the area and a generic response from the local M.P.  By and large national media avoided the issue.  The s*** is now hitting the MOJ fan.  Grayling`s ban on books for prisoners has been lifted but nothing else of note has taken place since Michael Gove took over his unlamented predecessor`s chair at Petty France.   The Law Society Gazette many of whose subscribers not unnaturally have a vested interest has kept the topic bubbling as its latest edition indicates but it reaches a limited audience.  National media have been relatively quiet on the topic. However, today both BBC and the Mirror have made limited headlines on the further closures planned for this parliament.  

But and it`s a big but; why have the  senior judiciary remained silent at least in public?  Are they so concerned with their pensions and their so called constitutional position?  Are they all awaiting retirement when they can excoriate this and the previous government`s emasculation of our justice system including its latest manifestation in the Courts Charge where once again the MOJ press office taking its cue from Pravda, that late unlamented organ of a not so free press beloved in its heyday by Marxists everywhere, repeats its lying mantra in the Law Society Gazette, " A ministry spokesperson said: ‘It is right that convicted adult offenders who use our criminal courts should pay towards the cost of running them. ‘The introduction of this charge makes it possible to recover some of the costs of the criminal courts from these offenders, therefore reducing the burden on taxpayers." when it has been universally denounced.

These people really do exist in a different dimension where in order to make something seem true it only has to be repeated ad nauseam. 

POLICE SHOULD WELCOME SCRUTINY OVER TINSEL AND GLITTER REALITY TV

It seems to this blogger that the more active an organisation`s press office appears to be the more it has to hide.  One could say that media exposure is inversely proportional to organisational probity. With the MOJ that was obvious to all who took an interest.  It seems that the Met Police press office is not far behind its MOJ comrades in following their maxim of the more we say the less we reveal.  However like a habit forming junkie the more that maxim is followed the less its effect.  

Earlier this year Scotland Yard appealed once more for possible witnesses to the Dolphin Square paedophile ring to come forward on the basis that the evidence of "Nick"  a supposed victim was credible.  Not everyone agrees.   Now another sensational report has been put about, altogether less successfully, that a serial killer might have been responsible for killing twenty four people by pushing them under tube trains.  The current Met Commissioner is arguably the most skilled operator in public relations who has held the office.  

With all the supposed true to life TV programmes on British policing from motorway cops who are now a rare sight to following police on the beat in Brighton who will themselves become an endangered species following further anticipated funding cuts I would opine that this police  PR roadshow has reached its limits.  Police forces can improve their profiles with the public more by becoming organisations which are truly open to scrutiny rather than manipulating the tinsel and glitter of  reality TV.

THE INQUISITORIAL MAGISTRATE

In France and other jurisdictions where the justice system is inquisitorial as opposed to the adversarial system in the U.K. there is an office of investigating magistrate. And as it says on the tin that person takes an active role in the investigation and court proceedings. Judges and J.P.s take an impartial role in the presentation of a criminal case and its defence. There are, however, occasions in a magistrates` court where intervention is not just allowed but necessary in the interests of justice. Frequent examples which come to mind are where a witness is being badgered by a lawyer prosecuting or defending or where the lawyer is insensitive to a witness`s abilty to comprehend a convoluted question whether that lawyer`s insensitivity is by accident or design. The cause for intervention in such cases is relatively simple to make. But matters are never always so straight forward.
Many non Crown Prosecution Service offenders are brought to a magistrates` court. Examples are RSPCA, TV licensing, transport companies [fare dodgers], trading standards [fly tipping, health and safety etc ] , local authorities [council tax defaulters] etc etc

I can recollect a case some years ago when I was sitting on one such prosecution. The prosecutor in her opening told us that her only witness, the investigating official, would read his five page statement and she would be relying on a bundle of over 200 pages as her evidence. We duly heard the official and a brief glance at the bundle showed that in addition to the official`s statement it was divided into three complainants` statements, the defendant’s interview, documents directly connecting the offender with the alleged offences and his various bank accounts over the specified period. Defence council had little upon which he could defend his client during cross examination of the official. His client who was not the sharpest knife in the drawer duly did his best under cross examination which was not approaching a Perry Mason standard. We retired to read the bundle telling those involved that we might have some questions for the defendant.

Much of the material in the bundle was totally unhelpful and unnecessary. We had to hunt for the pearls that the prosecutor had told us would be the basis for her case. We duly did find documents which appeared to link the defendant with the offence. Our concern was that they although they had been exhibited neither lawyer had pin pointed them. We decided that in the interests of justice we could not adjudicate without further knowledge and more answers. Thus we questioned the defendant in detail overruling objections from his counsel. He was found guilty. At the post court review our legal adviser anticipating the tone of the discussion assured us that our inquisitorial approach was, in this particular case, perfectly lawful. He agreed that the prosecutor was failing in her duty when she attempted to rely on a huge bundle without further probing. He added that he would have intervened if we had been overstepping the mark.

Chairmanship of a magistrates` bench is an art not a science although the drafters of the so called competences required and the resultant appraisals techniques would seem to argue otherwise. J.P.s` awareness of when sensitive questioning of a witness is useful is not in the instruction manual but it is in the interests of justice especially in an era of unrepresented defendants when there is no longer a level playing field.

ANOTHER PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER IN COURT

Once again a young Premier League footballer who is paid an extraordinary amount of money enabling him to drive an equally extraordinarily high powered car does so after imbibing excessive alcohol causing him to crash into cyclists on the side of the road injuring one of them, damaging his bike, driving off and then crashing into a nearby petrol pump where a witness called police. It seems from the sentence that this was based upon the offence of excess alcohol which would likely have been in excess of 59mg in breath.  The guidance that with multiple driving offences often no separate penalties are given but the most serious one is considered aggravated  has been in this case stretched almost to breaking point.  Omitting the offence of excess alcohol it seems an appropriate sentence would have been similar in principle except the period of disqualification would have been limited to one year. 

I do wonder sometimes, not having had personal experience, if benches are reluctant to impose sentences of such severity man on Clapham omnibus would receive when faced with such a defendant as this man with his eloquent advocate and public persona. 

TOP POLICE HAVE CRYSTAL BALLS

A relative of mine was recently in Salem Massachusetts, location of the infamous witch trials of 1692/3.  Twenty people were hanged for witchcraft as a result.  They were finally rehabilitated in 1957 when the State of Massachusetts apologised for the actions of its colonial law officials.  Group hysteria probably caused by  the abnormal habits of the accused ingesting the fungus ergot which can be found in rye, wheat and other cereal grasses overtook the accusers. Toxicologists say that eating ergot-contaminated foods can lead to muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions and hallucinations. Also, the fungus thrives in warm and damp climates—not too unlike the swampy meadows in Salem Village where rye was the staple grain during the spring and summer months.  Whilst clairvoyance can be likened to witchcraft only insofar as it cannot be determined by scientific rigour it appears that forces of law and order in England seem to be infected by similar processes of intellectual vacuousness.

The College of Policing, is a recently established body aiming to establish itself as a sort of Royal College akin to medical royal colleges.  These internationally reknown authorities and others similar are robust in their  use of scientific method in all their undertakings.  What can  only be derangement on the part of big bodies in blue uniforms surmounted by big heads with very small brains can lead it to pronounce on its "About" page,  "A fundamental development within the College is the use of knowledge and research to develop an evidence-based approach to policing." and yet take seriously the use of clairvoyance in investigation.

Readers might have a more descriptive way in considering how top echelons of police are being instructed in view of the above.  Perhaps they [the College] have their own in house crystal ball sergeant  who stares into its glassy interior muttering, "I see, I see, I see. What`s this all about then?".