Crown Court Backlog Debate: Should Right Of Jury Trial By Your Peers Remain?
Senior Associate at Hodge Jones & Allen Francesca Cociani recently joined Petrie Hosken on TalkTV to discuss how the UK government will look to tackle a significant backlog in the courts system.
One of the proposals being mooted could entail reducing the number of jury trials and will be part of a wider review into the courts to be held by senior lawyer Sir Brian Leveson. Sir Brian will study a range of options in his review, including introducing a new tier of “intermediate courts” where a judge will hear cases alongside magistrates, rather than with a jury. He will also look at whether some crimes that can be heard in crown courts before juries would be better placed being heard before magistrates.
Francesca joins the debate on TalkTV at a time where the Crown Court caseload – where all jury trials take place – has reached 73,105, almost double pre-pandemic levels.
In the discussion Francesca describes how jury trials are a longstanding cornerstone of the British justice system, and she analyses the risks associated with side-lining them in favour of quick fixes, opining that they are not “a luxury for when we can afford it” and are not the only cause of the Crown Court backlog. She delves into the origin of the backlog, noting that the troubling figures have been driven by years of underfunding, closures, dilapidated court buildings exacerbated by cuts in legal aids, as well as strikes by criminal lawyers, among other factors.
You can view the wide-ranging discussion between Francesca and Petrie Hosken on TalkTV here.
