It seems that the entry warrants scandal still has some steam in it. The Times today features an article on pp2 revealing a letter from Right Honourable Lord Justice Edis Senior Presiding Judge of England and Wales that instructs the granting of such warrants to cease. See below.Of course for any thinking reader as I assume my readers are the question that comes to mind is how did this scandal arise in the first place. The answer to that must be considered in the light of the enormous numbers of cases documented here over the last few weeks posts. These matters of entry warrants were concentrated over a specific number of magistrates courts as noted here on 17th January. Only His Majesty`s Courts and Tribunals Service would have this authority to instruct under the term of what I understood when active was THE Justices` Clerk who had delegated control of a number of courts where the on site boss was designated Deputy Justices` Clerk. As a new magistrate myself in 1998 after sitting as a winger a number of times on entry warrants I was horrified that very large bundles of warrants were passed for me to sign without examination. Subsequently I refused to participate in such a pastiche of justice. My efforts, successful in the end, to change that atrocious practice ensured that all colleagues could participate in a systematic examination of all applicants` payment and social histories of those whose home they wished to enter to install PAYG meters. Using the search box will open many posts over the last 10 years on this topic.
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Tuesday 7 February 2023
A MESS OF JUDICIAL POTAGE
It seems that the entry warrants scandal still has some steam in it. The Times today features an article on pp2 revealing a letter from Right Honourable Lord Justice Edis Senior Presiding Judge of England and Wales that instructs the granting of such warrants to cease. See below.Of course for any thinking reader as I assume my readers are the question that comes to mind is how did this scandal arise in the first place. The answer to that must be considered in the light of the enormous numbers of cases documented here over the last few weeks posts. These matters of entry warrants were concentrated over a specific number of magistrates courts as noted here on 17th January. Only His Majesty`s Courts and Tribunals Service would have this authority to instruct under the term of what I understood when active was THE Justices` Clerk who had delegated control of a number of courts where the on site boss was designated Deputy Justices` Clerk. As a new magistrate myself in 1998 after sitting as a winger a number of times on entry warrants I was horrified that very large bundles of warrants were passed for me to sign without examination. Subsequently I refused to participate in such a pastiche of justice. My efforts, successful in the end, to change that atrocious practice ensured that all colleagues could participate in a systematic examination of all applicants` payment and social histories of those whose home they wished to enter to install PAYG meters. Using the search box will open many posts over the last 10 years on this topic.
Thursday 2 February 2023
THE INIQUITY OF GRANTING WARRANTS OF ENTRY
Tuesday 31 January 2023
JCIO IS A SECRET CLOAKING DEVICE
Almost daily it seems but in reality probably monthly a supervisory body is found to have allowed bad things to happen in an organisation supposedly under its jurisdiction. Police, hospitals, children`s services, building authorities and many others whose oversight has been found wonting generally issue a statement of self serving apology and assuring a sceptical public and their political overlords behind the bushes that steps are being taken to ensure that failures will be rectified. Very occasionally people are removed from their jobs many to resurface months later with a new position and title often with an enhanced salary. But what of those who appointed the supervisory or disciplinary body which failed in its sole purpose of supervising or disciplining? We, the great British public, just do not know who appoints the appointees. Insofar as that most secretive of bodies, the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, is concerned its members are approved by the Lord Chancellor but its workhorses who decide on any case are civil servants. I posted the organisational chart that shows the staff involved on 18th October 2022 . By typing in the search box JCIO previous posts on this topic may be read.
However my reason today for re-visiting this subject is three fold;
1. The identities of those who decide on the evidence presented by the JCIO whether or not to sanction the judicial office holder under investigation are not available to the public and
2. Despite apparent clarity on its website the JCIO accepts or rejects without appeal in an arbitrary fashion.
3. Secrecy is the fallback position of all inquiry. The statement below from the JCIO website requires no interpretation
Bullying or harassment, for example of staff, colleagues, litigants, or legal representatives
Using racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive language
Loss of temper/rudeness/aggression, for example shouting
Misusing judicial status, for example to try to influence another person or organisation for personal gain
Misusing social media, for example posting offensive content, or content which could damage public confidence in judicial impartiality such as remarks about government policy
Failure to report personal involvement in civil, criminal, or professional disciplinary proceedings
Delay in issuing a judgment or order (usually considered to be a delay, without a reasonable excuse, of more than three months)
Falling asleep in court
Bias in a judge’s decision-making
A judge allowing one party to speak for longer than another
A judge refusing to allow a witness to give evidence or admit certain documents
A judge appearing to react more favourably to one person’s evidence than another’s
A judge saying that he or she does not believe a person’s evidence, questioning a person’s credibility or criticising a person’s actions
A judge making an error of law or procedure
A judge expressing opinions about issues related to a case they are hearing
The amount of costs or damages awarded by a judge
A judge not reading documents before a hearing
A judge refusing to transfer a case to a different judge or court
A judge reserving a case to themselves
A judge refusing to correspond with a party about a case
Fraud or any other criminal offence
Court staff, court bailiffs or the facilities and services provided by courts
Other bodies such as the Police or Crown Prosecution Service
Solicitors and Barristers
Justice is not justice if it is not seen to be done. That applies to the judges as much or more than it applies to the judged. Senior judiciary is afraid to speak out until in receipt of a gold plated pension. That is understandable or at least was understandable in previous centuries. But we are now in an era of instant world wide communication. The mores of 1953 are unsustainable in 2023 as even King Charles has noted. The current situation, where at the base of the judicial pyramid lay magistrates sit as a bench of one in secret and the pinnacle where their senior colleagues are subject to a secret protective layer of the invisible cloaking device of the JCIO, the future is not rosy. We should all be concerned.
Tuesday 24 January 2023
MORE ON THE SINGLE JUSTICE PROCEDURE//A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE
It is unlikely that the SJP has been extended to these cases but I would not bet against their being added to the portfolio currently under that umbrella. It is interesting to note that if in its wisdom HMCTS and the local justices clerk decide that a magistrate is required to sit as a SJP that individual has no ability to refuse even if s/he considers the process anything from unfair to reprehensible. A Freedom of Information request elicited the following statement from the MOJ. "All justices authorised by the Lord Chief Justice to act in the criminal jurisdiction are authorised to act irrespective of the procedure used. None is entitled to opt out of cases on the basis of procedure." The question to be asked is just how authoritarian can the MOJ be in relation to the activities in magistrates courts and the corollary is just how many magistrates will allow themselves to be placed in a position to comply or resign. And of course the so called "representative" of magistrates; the Magistrates Association remains silent that there is compulsion for its unknown number of active members to participate in the SJP.
In practical terms speeding charges are a major proportion of the cases under SJP. The table below gives the latest numbers available.
Tuesday 17 January 2023
LAST CHANCE SALOON FOR MAGISTRATES
Regular readers might have noticed that there are two topics which appear to have more than their fair share of space of late in my weekly outpourings: the Single Justice Procedure and warrants of entry for utility companies. The latter particularly is of personal interest because the criticisms beginning to arise to a wider audience inside and outside parliament have been apparent since I first sat as a winger in 1998. The arrogance of various chairmen now known as presiding justices in passing a heavy bundle of documents towards me with instructions to sign and the encouragement of clerks now known as legal advisors to "press on" was against my very nature of inquiry and fair play. However after some years research and persuasion with the assistance of a legal advisor whose ideas of justice were akin to my own my bench adopted the Best Practice Guidance as posted here 27th May 2015. It appears that this example was not followed elsewhere. Indeed like so many cover ups by supervisory authorities in this country, whether of errant police officers, bullying health authorities or childcare organisations to name but a few, the MOJ tolerated and in fact encouraged this practice of nodding through warrants of entry to cut power or installing of PAYG meters to those who could least afford the extortionate charges to feed those meters. The iniquity of this policy can be seen in the table below. The anomaly of the numbers refused in 2019 cf 2020 and beyond certainly points to a directive from on high to change whatever policy was previously operating. In all probability from my own experiences this was likely to have been pressure from the gas and electricity supply industries and their bailiffs.
YEAR GRANTED REFUSED TOTAL
2019 277,142 1,824 278,966
2020 221,494 43 221,537
2021 332,277 36 332,313
2022 367,084 56 367,140
Assuming my comments on time involved dealing with the volumes as above it is fair to say that individual magistrates must be held responsible for failing in their duty as per their oath of office: “I, _________ , do swear by Almighty God that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign King Charles the Third in the office of ________ , and I will do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will.” They truly have lost what little independence they have been left with since the turn of the millennium. They have no body around which they can unite and offer their views on matters affecting them. Instead they are considered as unpaid employees and when HMCTS says "jump" they not only jump but they offer to jump higher. Their so called "leadership magistrates" are so enveloped in their abilities in using their tongues to lick unpleasant places that the MOJ keeps their identities secret from their colleagues so that they can act like stooges on any council in Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai. Truly those who connive in this aberration of so called justice are nothing less than MOJ toadies and the sooner this facade of diversity of local citizens for diversity in local justice is replaced by others with a true sense of duty the better. This means that advisory committees must be instructed by a new cadre of civil servants who realise that unless changes are made the clamour of the legal profession for lay magistrates` replacement by District Judges (MC) will be unstoppable. Indeed the magistracy as it has been known since WW2 is now in the last chance saloon.
ADDENDUM 19th January 2023
Tuesday 10 January 2023
LAWYERS DO NOT BITE THE HANDS OF THOSE THEY HOPE WILL FEED THEM
Type Single Justice Procedure into the search box and there will appear several posts of varying vintage of my thoughts on this topic. Last week the procedure was extended to companies. In addition some wording accompanying this press release reveals, albeit subtly and unintended I`m certain, that the facade of this secret justice procedure is revealed as not being a court in the accepted sense of the word. But more of that later.
The traditional bench of three, but all too often two, lay magistrates has developed from being selected by and comprising the supposed "great and the good" of a borough or county into a supposedly diverse and representative slice of a local society although for almost a decade the terms of service of JPs have been changed to allow them, in theory at least, to sit anywhere in England or Wales. They have been constituted as finders of fact and sentencers with a legal advisor to ensure that their words and actions are lawful or perhaps not unlawful. Such a composition continuously variable (consider how many combinations of three per a bench of eg 200) allowed a wide expertise to be exercised. That has been the rallying call for at least twenty + years by the supporters of the process when attacked by the many legal proponents of employing only legally qualified District Judges for the lower courts.
The non imprisonable offences charged against companies can be a good deal more complex than similar against named individuals. In addition some offences can be those in which company law is involved. * Annex A: Companies Act 2006, Schedule of Company Offences (SEE FULL DOCUMENT BELOW) shows the dozens of offences which the CPS could decide are suitable for presenting through the SJP. Having sat and presided over a number of these during my tenure I am more than convinced that having another or two colleagues to discuss the details was essential to have complete confidence in a final decision. The MOJ has until now presented the SJP as just an alternative form of court when in reality in most cases the magistrate and legal advisor are not even sitting in the same room within the court building. Either or possibly both would be working from home.
This facade is now blown out of the water in the document referred to above. Under the heading "SJP for companies" is written; "As with all SJP cases, defendants can still choose to have their case heard in a court." If ever there was an admission that even the MOJ itself does not consider the SJP a court in the accepted sense this is it. A court can be defined as follows; take your choice...........
A place where trials and legal cases are decided, or the group of people who deal with legal cases there
A place where trials and other legal cases happen, or the people present in such a place, especially the officials and those deciding if someone is guilty
A place where legal matters are decided by a judge and jury or by a magistrate.
An official group of people (such as a judge and jury) who listen to evidence and make decisions about legal cases.
Tuesday 3 January 2023
AND NOT ENOUGH SERGEANTS
"Lions led by donkeys" is a phrase popularly used to describe the British infantry of the First World War and to blame the generals who led them. That short description by Alan Clark in his 1961 book The Donkeys served to elevate the common soldier while denigrating the officer class. Of course a century ago there was no department of human resources in the British army of 1914-1918. Now people are paid enormous salaries to determine inter alia the "who, why and what" a company or organisation demands of its workforce. In many ways the ranked order of a workforce is no longer achieved by the rule of thumb instinct of an entrepreneur but by supposedly expert functionaries themselves subsumed into grades. It was perhaps in the Roman army where defined units were perfected. Indeed modern military formations are largely based on the efficiency of such units. These were refined as:-
Contubernium. A squad of eight men, led by a decanus.
Centuria. A group of 10 contubernium, led by a centurion.
Cohorts. A group of six centuria, totalling out to 480 men.
Legio. A legion of 10 cohorts, roughly 5,000 men.
Eques Legionis. The cavalry unit of a legio consisting of 120 men.
It is common knowledge that since 2010 20,000 police officers have been made redundant or retired and it is also common knowledge that notwithstanding Boris Johnson`s pledge to recruit 20,00 replacements all has not gone well with many of these new recruits resigning before becoming truly effective.
There is 1 sergeant for every 4.8 constables
There is 1 inspector for every 3.04 sergeants
There is 1 chief inspector for every 3.85 inspectors
There is 1 superintendent for every 1.89 chief inspectors
There is 1 chief superintendent for every 2.1 superintendents
There is 1 inspector for every 3.26 sergeants
There is 1 chief inspector for every 3.11 inspectors
There is one chief or superintendent for every 1.49 chief inspectors
There is 1 chief officer* for every 5.56 chief or superintendents
*Includes Assistant Chief Constables, Deputy Chief Constables and Chief Constables, and their equivalents in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police. These police officers were previously referred to as Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) ranks; however, on 1 April 2015 ACPO was replaced by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
Those who are much more knowledgeable than I know that the backbone of an efficient fighting force is determined by the quality and number of its non commissioned officers. This opinion has been reinforced by the war in Ukraine where the Russians have been found deficient in that very area cf the highly trained Ukrainians. The ratios of constables/sergeants and sergeants/inspectors have significantly changed since 2010. Sergeants are perhaps the most important cohort within the police service. No amount of fast entry university graduates can be a substitute for training on the job: a form of education which after two generations of being excluded from so many routes to professional qualifications is just beginning to be recognised as the educational baby which was thrown out with the supposedly academic bathwater.
This post began with an adage and I think an even older one best sums up the situation as above...........too many chiefs and not enough indians.
Tuesday 27 December 2022
SERMON ON THE BENCH
On 29th September last year calling themselves environmental protesters a rag band of people blocked Britain`s busiest motorway M25 causing misery and delays for thousands of drivers going about their lawful activities whether of business, pleasure or public duty. Owing to delays in the court process those arrested for their actions that day only came to court on 12th April this year. Some of the demonstrators appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court while others pleaded guilty by post. They appeared before District Judge Stephen Leake who had been appointed just six months earlier. And during that legal process he made remarks which if they had been made by any presiding magistrate would almost certainly have led to an investigation by that august body to which I have referred above. But my point is that despite widespread media coverage it seems that this arrogant, foolish, irresponsible judge having made possibly the most injudicious judicial remarks of the year will continue to preside over his court with nary a word of official criticism. Once again I publish below the judicial oath; an oath which must be obvious to the most legalistic mind, has not just been broken but has been torn to shreds by the ego, smugness, imperiousness and haughtiness of this highly paid civil servant in whom the general public must place its trust and in those who appointed him and deemed his actions acceptable.
“I, _________ , do swear by Almighty God that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign King Charles the Third in the office of ________ , and I will do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will.” Perhaps he considered that by finding the offenders guilty his remarks were justifiable. His comment:- "I have heard your voices. They have inspired me and personally I intend to do what I can to reduce my own impact on the planet" gives me the impression he regards himself as a preacher to those of us who consider these law breakers as embryonic fascists seeking to impose their opinions on the rest of us by any means they consider necessary.
Saturday 24 December 2022
A CHRISTMAS BENCH
It`s that time of the year when the watchwords of "Peace on earth and goodwill toward men!” will be dismissed by some as sexist, misogynist and an archaic use of language unfit for current usage. Whilst not everyone is duty bound to be a Christian in one form or another the sentiments in that phrase are universal. It is just like a sailor many days at sea looking at the horizon; it seems to be never ending until land is sighted. There are occasions when war and hate also seem never ending. History unfortunately is often on the side of the pessimists. However for all readers of any denomination or none I wish you that traditional English "merry" Christmas and a happy new year.
Tuesday 20 December 2022
MAGISTRATES AND GETTYSBURG
Very few people, I`m sure, of those interested in the application of law to our society will have been unaware that the MOJ has been using widespread advertising in order to appoint in the near future 4,000 new magistrates. This requirement is similar in some aspects to the widely propagated view of highly placed Conservative ministers and MPs that 20,000 new police constables are being recruited or 40 new hospitals are being built. That since 2010 20,000 police officers have retired from the force, been made redundant or not been replaced by various Conservative governments is now as well known as the chimera of the current recruitment drive. Similar argument can now be seen as applicable to the nonsensical claim of 40 new hospitals. When urgent numbers of new personnel are needed for any profession there is clear risk that standards will be lowered, stretched or in other ways made as flexible as possible to fill the quota required especially when a government is ultimate employer and seeks to maximise the hoped for beneficial optics.
And so to those eager, aspiring new magistrates required now in bulk owing to the MOJ refusing to recruit over the last decade when retirements were predicted as easily as future Christmas days were diarised. It is unlikely that any information, gossip or assistance they receive either prior to or subsequent to a successful application will adequately prepare them for what they are about to receive. The intangibles of entering a hybrid state of being volunteers but also considered unpaid employees of a government quango; the most junior members of the judiciary, so called representatives of their local communities, examples of "diversity" in action and yet having the power to sit in judgement upon their fellow citizens who are at risk of 12 months jail time. In addition they will be entering an environment where the term woke in word and deed is considered as normal. Perhaps if they were instructed to read the statements published with unfailing regularity on the website of the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office they would be warned of what is expected of them. Indeed the initial training might be considered in commercial and/or website small print as terms and conditions.
On the JCIO website today Helen Mackay JP was placed into the last chance saloon. Also today it was announced that Miss Kaira McCallum JP has been kicked off the bench. Last month Ms Shirley Young JP was given a formal warning as has Mr Declan Curran JP. Mr Mark Philpotts JP has been handed "formal advice" for his misdemeanour. In September for " a lack of the circumspection and sound judgement expected of a judicial office-holder" Mr Gary Cracknell JP has also been subject to "formal advice".
To paraphrase one of the wisest orations of all time:- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of justice—and that justice of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. But only if those sitting in judgement satisfy those in authority of being of the people and by the people and subject to the strictures higher than those applied to those at the top of the judicial tree.
Friday 16 December 2022
WARRANTS OF DISCONNECTION//A VERY LATE P.S.
Having removed my finger from the magistracy`s pulse seven years ago I am now just an observer sometimes rather late in my observations. Real time now is but a memory. However a debate yesterday in the House of Commons on some magistrates` benches approach to dealing with energy companies` warrant applications set my mind back to my blog of 16th August 2013.
Magistrates have it within their powers and indeed within their souls to investigate each and every application for disconnection. The delays will infuriate legal advisors as those instigated by my actions certainly did but I persuaded like minded colleagues and eventually a protocol was agreed with the Deputy Justices Clerk. I even still have the documents on file. But and it`s a big "but", it is my concern that magistrates are now less willing or even unable to counter "orders from above". Their independence is now but a shadow of what it was when I was appointed. I might remind JP readers of their oath: “ I, _________ , do swear by Almighty God that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign King Charles the Third in the office of Justice of the Peace, and I will do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will.” However with many doctors prepared to ignore their Hippocratic Oath or similar undertaking I cannot be sure that magistrates will not free themselves from the words spoken on their appointment.
Tuesday 13 December 2022
OUT OF COURT DISPOSALS// ARE MAGISTRATES` OPINIONS VALIDATED?
The Ministry of Justice worships the god of diversity and the goddess of representation. Underlying the selection of those thought capable of being able to judge their fellow man (in this terminology man embraces woman, transwoman, transman and all varieties in between) is the supposed need that local communities, however they might be defined for a magistracy which is geographically and legally no longer local, need locally based unpaid volunteer lay magistrates. The same MOJ employs full time judges sitting in the supreme court down to district judges sitting full or part time in the magistrates and county courts. These highly paid civil servants are not considered by any criteria apart from their abilities to do the job in question. There were 13,000 county court trials in January to March 2022. The complete current analysis of the workload at those courts for those interested is available here. My main point, however, is not the numbers but the people; those who sit alone high on a bench changing the lives of many. They are not nor need to be "diverse" or representative of the populations within the courts` jurisdiction. Which brings me to the organisation which purports to be the representative of lay magistrates. Latest head count is that there 12,506 magistrates but the number of those holding membership of the M.A. is secret. I am not an accountant but within the 36 page annual report of to the Charity Commission are these few details re membership:- "Income for 2021-22 was £589,337 and for 2020 -21 £619,239. " The individual membership annual charge is £47 so simple arithmetic would appear to tell us that there are 12,539 magistrates but what those figures omit is that that income includes the annual £39.50 paid by retired magistrates who wish to stay involved. Since it can be estimated that at least 20% of magistrates do not join the M.A. the regular clarion calls from its recently appointed new chief executive about this or that policy being "magistrates consider etc etc etc" are exaggerated to say the least.
The latest outburst concerns out of court disposals. We have been there before. In 2015 the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee published a paper available here which if one scrolls down indicates that the then chairman of the M.A. was somewhat critical of the situation which of course is now generally speaking supposed to be in operation. But M.A. criticism in that report is not a one off. Its underlying motivation is to secure as much work in the magistrates courts as possible. Its long standing ambition for the lower courts` limit on custodial sentencing powers to be doubled to 12 months custody has become reality in the last year with the perfect storm of a Covid pandemic reducing capacity so causing hitherto unheard of delays in all courts combined with this government`s increasing recklessness in reducing budget imbalances. Crown courts are much more costly to run than magistrates courts thus taking more serious cases from the former to the latter makes financial sense but the debate whether or not justice is being truly served is for another time.
The immediate question is how the rate of out of court disposals is not to the liking of the M.A. Out of court disposals are a means by which a law enforcement agency such as the police can swiftly and efficiently deal with less serious offending without commencing a criminal prosecution. In order for an out of court disposal to be valid the offence must be eligible and the offender must accept his/her guilt.There are currently a variety of different out of court disposals of which three are not recorded on the Police National Computer. These are: community resolutions, drugs warnings (for cannabis and khat), and penalty notices for disorder. Under the proposed new Act only community resolutions will remain in place.
Almost every Justice Secretary from the year dot has indicated that knife offenders will face custody. It`s almost a mantra observed more in the absence than in the reality. "Out-of-court disposals 'expanding uncontrollably', magistrates warn" is the headline of an article in today`s Law Society Gazette. There are indeed valid questions to be asked about knife offender policy today as there have been for over a decade but my raison d`etre today is the lack of true informed opinion of magistrates owing to their having no mouthpiece other than the M.A. an organisation which should be asking itself why for a small tax deductible sum it has not achieved mass membership. Its attempts to keep the actual numbers of active member secret is itself a statement which throws a shadow over all its endeavours. Government, i.e. the MOJ if it wanted to know what magistrates really think should undertake its own survey. Perhaps that action has been considered and rejected because the answers from the devil it knows might be infinitely preferable to those from one that it doesn`t know. Indeed validation of opinion is not necessarily a priority for this government or any other for that matter.