Plans to axe half of all jury trials would “erode” public trust in the criminal justice system, while failing to tackle the backlog of cases, says the new Lancashire chair of the Bar Council.
Kirsty Brimelow KC, who was raised near Chorley, urged the Government to focus on measures that would speed up court proceedings rather than gunning for a reform which is controversial and risks “draining” energy and resources that are needed to tackle the problems.
The barrister, a former Chambers colleague of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, highlighted the “roar” of complaints about delays caused by prisoners being brought to court late as an area that ministers should focus on instead of scaling back jury trials.
Delivering her inaugural speech at the start of her year-long stint as Bar Council chair, Ms Brimelow set out the body’s “principled and pragmatic” opposition to the plans to reduce jury trials.
She said: “There is much to do to recover our criminal justice system.
“The latest Government proposals restricting jury trials will not reduce the backlog of cases, built up over years of financial slash and burn of the criminal justice system, but may further erode trust, which hangs by the thread of citizen participation in the criminal courts.
“The pragmatic points are that the reduction of juries would have no impact on the existing backlog, as it would take effect towards the end of this Parliament.
“Impact even then is highly uncertain.
“Meanwhile, energy and focus are drained from implementing the urgent reforms now that would decrease the backlog.”
The case backlog in the crown courts of England and Wales has now reached about 80,000 and is expected to continue to rise without significant action.
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Justice Secretary David Lammy said on Sunday that he believes restricting the right to jury trial is necessary to “save the criminal justice system”.
He hopes the backlog will have started to come down by the time of the next general election and could be cleared within the next 10 years.
However, he faces the possibility of a backbench rebellion, with one vocal opponent to the jury trial plan, Hull Labour MP Karl Turner, suggesting at the weekend he could quit and force a by-election on the issue.
Ms Brimelow, a previous chair of the Criminal Bar Association, told a reception at the historic Gray’s Inn Hall in Chancery Lane, central London, on Monday, that reforms should be focused on areas that could deliver swift results.
“These include intense case management – successful reduction of the backlog can be seen in courts where there has been proactive triaging of cases led by the Crown Prosecution Service and the police, and opening the courts that continue to sit empty by removing the cap on sitting days,” she said.
“If we can implement these reforms in the courts and have every court sitting, we can reduce the backlog.
“The calls for prisoner escort and custody service reform are the whine that has become a roar.”
She told the audience that contracts worth almost £1.4 billion have been signed by the Ministry of Justice to ensure that private companies take prisoners to court on time for their hearings each day.
“And yet hours are lost in courts each day in courts due to prisoners not being brought to court on time and, when at court, not taken up into the dock due to lack of staff,” she said.
“I know, because I am one of those barristers buzzing on the cells in the forlorn hope that my client might have arrived.
"I’m one of those barristers sitting in an empty courtroom chatting with the unsung clerk and usher – sitting and waiting.”
Last year, the Government commissioned retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson to produce recommendations on tackling the problems in the courts.
The idea of scaling back the right to jury trial was among his ideas, and expanding the use of out-of-court resolutions to minor criminal cases, increasing court sitting days and reclassifying some offences so they can be dealt with by magistrates' courts.
Ms Brimelow suggested Sir Brian’s other recommendations could be moved forward, but lawyers across the country are “hand in hand” in opposition to jury trial reform.
She added: “The Government, if listening, can move past this issue and return to getting on with the emergency action needed in our courts.”
The daughter of a factory engineer and sewist, she studied law at Birmingham University and was called to the Bar in 1991.
She said in her speech that she was invited to join Doughty Street Chambers in 2009 after a meeting with one of the founders, Keir Starmer, who she described as “quite impressive”.
She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2011 and has also sat as a judge.
“I always feel the tug of my privilege on my sleeve,” she said, while outlining her work in human rights.
She has set out 12 priorities in her year as chair, including considering whether the age of criminal consent should be raised above 10 years old, combating violence against women and girls, and reforming the fast-track courts of the single justice procedure.
Ms Brimelow, who is at the head of the Bar Council’s first all-women leadership team, has pledged to tackle bad behaviour within the legal profession, telling the audience: “I will stamp my own foot on bullying or harassment, whilst wearing heels.”
Ms Brimelow added that she wants the exploration of tougher sentences and better recording by courts when women and girls are abused, and sometimes killed, because of a belief that they are a witch.
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