The Changes Will Be Unworkable In Practice

This letter appears in The Times:

As retired judges, chairs and former chairs of the Bar and the Criminal Bar Association, we disagree with the replacement of judge and jury trials with judge-only trials for a wide range of offences that attract prison sentences of up to three years, and with the proposal to have cases of dishonesty that might be described as “long and complex” tried by a judge alone. Not because we are reactionaries but because the changes will be unworkable in practice.

The evidence that they will significantly affect the backlog of cases is too thin to support the policy. Victims, witnesses and defendants will still have to wait years, even under the government’s best-case scenario. The experience that juries bring to trials is a better guarantee of fairness to all in a multicultural society than the narrower professional experience of judges. Cutting juries out of the predicted 50 per cent of trials suggests a lack of trust by politicians in the public. We may not have a written constitution but trial by jury is a constitutional matter.

The government wants to rush the Courts and Tribunals Bill through parliament, despite it not having been in Labour’s manifesto and despite inadequate impact assessments. If magistrates are allowed to pass two-year sentences to take more trials from the Crown Court, their existing record backlog of cases will simply grow.

Riel Karmy-Jones KC, chair, the Criminal Bar Association, Andrew Thomas KC, vice-chair, the Criminal Bar Association, Kirsty Brimelow KC, chair, the Bar Council of England and Wales, also former chair of the CBA, Heidi Stonecliffe KC, vice-chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales, HH Peter Collier KC, formerly resident judge, Leeds crown court, and recorder of Leeds, HH Christopher Kinch KC, formerly resident judge of Woolwich crown court and recorder of Royal Borough of Greenwich, HH Geoffrey Rivlin KC, past deputy resident judge at Southwark crown court, HH Peter Rook KC, formerly a senior circuit judge at the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey), former CBA chair, co-author, Sexual Offences: Law and Practice, HH Jeffrey Pegden KC, formerly a circuit judge and formerly judge at Southwark crown court, HH Nicholas Loraine-Smith, formerly a circuit judge and formerly judge at Southwark crown court, HH Paul Dodgson, formerly a circuit judge and formerly judge at Southwark crown court, Tana Adkin KC, former CBA chair, Chris Henley KC, former CBA chair, Mark Fenhalls KC, former CBA chair, also former chair of the Bar Council, Francis FitzGibbon KC, former CBA chair, James Mulholland KC, former CBA chair, Mary Prior KC, former CBA chair, Claire Davies KC, leader of the South Eastern Circuit, Caroline Goodwin KC, leader of the North Eastern Circuit, also former chair of the CBA, Samantha Hillas KC, leader of the Northern Circuit, Harpreet Sandhu KC, leader of the Midlands Circuit, Sarah Jones KC, leader of the Western Circuit, Chris Rees KC, leader of the Wales and Chester Circuit.