Barristers up and down the country branded Andy Burnham’s jury trials U-turn a “car crash” within seconds of its announcement last night.
The move would push thousands more cases onto the nation’s magistrates’ courts by stripping defendants of their right to choose a Crown Court trial, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) warned.
It’s thought that 25,000 cases a year – including 5,500 jury trials – will be shunted into the country’s lower courts as a result.
Those will include complex assaults, sexual assaults and child abuse cases which volunteer magistrates are “completely unequipped to try”, the CBA said.
Magistrates’ courts do not have juries. Cases are instead heard by a panel of three trained volunteers or a single paid professional district judge.
And while the U-turn has been made with solving the country’s court backlog in mind, there are set to be even more delays at the lower rungs of the justice system.
The backlog of open court case in the magistrates’ courts has surged by 16 per cent annually, and up to 40 per cent in some regions.
They simply do not have the resources to take on thousands of more sensitive cases, the CBA has warned.
More than 5,000 jury trials will be shunted into the country’s ‘unequipped’ lower courts thanks to the move
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Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said Labour had been “forced to abandon its central attack on jury trials in the Crown Court” as he hailed the U-turn as a victory for campaigners.
But he warned the party was now “restricting juries by the back door, scrapping the right to elect one and dumping those cases on magistrates whose backlog is at a record high”.
Andrew Thomas KC, the CBA’s chairman, said: “We are delighted that Andy Burnham’s Government has scrapped plans for judge-only trials. Justice needs juries.
“Nothing inspires more public trust than 12 ordinary citizens from all walks of life deciding the facts of a case together. Yet, a severe threat to our trial by jury remains in the Bill.
LABOUR U-TURNS – READ MORE:
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said Labour was ‘restricting juries by the back door’
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HOUSE OF COMMONS“The proposal to strip defendants of their right to elect a Crown Court trial, combined with doubling Magistrates’ sentencing powers to two years, would shift 25,000 cases a year, including 5,500 jury trials, out of the Crown Court.
“These are not minor offences. It includes serious and sensitive cases including assaults, sexual assaults, child abuse and GBH.
“Our volunteer magistrates do an excellent job but they are completely unequipped to try complex, multi-day trials.
“What makes it worse is that it is far more difficult to get Legal Aid in the Magistrates’ Courts, and people facing long sentences of imprisonment will end up representing themselves.
“The Magistrates’ Courts simply cannot cope… They do not have enough Magistrates, enough qualified legal advisers or enough resources to take on thousands of more sensitive cases.
Lower courts ‘simply cannot cope’ with Labour’s plans, the CBA warned
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“It would be a car crash if they tried to do it, especially at this time.”
Labour is running a magistrates recruitment drive, but a Justice Committee report in June said it was “unrealistic” to propose 7,000 magistrates can be recruited in three years to reach a target of 21,000 by 2029 – adding that previous recruitment campaigns have “fallen far short”.
Catherine Feast, the chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association, said she hoped magistrates can “rise to this new challenge”.
“Magistrates already handle around 95 per cent of criminal cases, and proved their ability to take on greater sentencing responsibility in 2024, when their powers were smoothly extended from six months to 12 months,” she said.
“Provided there is appropriate magistrate training and resourcing to support this further extension – including having sufficient legal advisers and courts properly equipped and fit for purpose – magistrates can rise to this new challenge.”
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