I retired from the magistracy in 2015 after 17 years mainly as a presiding justice

United Kingdom
My current blog can be accessed at https://thejusticeofthepeaceblog.blogspot.com/

BREACH OR NO BREACH? YOU COUDN`T MAKE IT UP

 

09. Feb. 2010. – 11:54:33

 

If ever there was a situation where accurate up to date information must be readily available it is on the desk of the Legal Adviser to a Bench of Magistrates. When papers are missing or inaccurate the consequences can vary from hilarious to horrendous. When a court is still sitting at 5.00pm which is not uncommon office staff have usually left and those in court must resolve any difficulties on the spot. Such a recent late sitting involved a woman arrested earlier in the day for breaching bail conditions in that she was seen entering the street where her lover lived although it appeared to be a condition of bail not to do so. It seemed on the surface clear enough. However the Police National Computer indicated that she was on conditional bail for two alleged assaults a month apart two trials having been set for March and April. One set of conditions forbade her from going to the complainant`s address and the other from entering the street where she lived. The Legal Adviser had papers in front of her only for one of the incidents. The Crown prosecutor had no papers for the first charge and defence lawyer had knowledge only of the other matter his client having another firm of solicitors for the first case. A sentence including the words brewery and organise came to mind. The defendant faced a night in the cells. With pragmatism borne from necessity the CPS was persuaded to drop the bail charge and the two sets of bail conditions were harmonised preventing entry to the complainant`s street. The defendant was given a very strict warning as to the restrictions on which she was released.

What would Rumpole of the Bailey have made of it? No doubt another tale of woe to be washed down with a bottle of Claret in his favourite Fleet Street watering hole.

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