A PARALLEL COURTS SYSTEM

 

 06. Mar. 2010. – 14:13:22

Courts of law are not the only places where the justice system operates. "Courts" held by many professional bodies have procedures similar to those in the Criminal Justice System adjusted for their individual requirements and subject to judicial review and government intervention when considered appropriate.

One such is the General Medical Council which has spawned such offspring as the General Teaching Council, General Optical Council etc etc. Its duty is not just to investigate possible medical malpractice but to adjudicate on whether non medical activities are such that the fitness to practise of a registrant is a danger to the public. One such example is the case of Dr Nushan Pasindu Gunawardana , who having been caught speeding, unprofessionally asked a colleague to provide a letter in mitigation to the Court which was intended to create an impression in relation to the speeding offence which was misleading and dishonest. It is unconfirmed whether or not the erring student was disqualified from driving as a result. Recently a GMC disciplinary panel admitted that although his behaviour had “been a departure from good medical practice,” its members rejected claims that it impaired his ability to work in the medical profession.

The moral question is at what level of dishonest or disreputable behaviour does a registrant, student or otherwise, of a professional body become liable for punishment and if so to what degree. Clearly a student teacher convicted of an offence of abuse against children is unlikely to be considered to be training in the appropriate profession for his/her or the public good. A student optometrist on the other hand convicted of assault might, depending on the facts, be allowed to continue his/her studies. The only undisputable fact is that since the Shipman case all professional bodies have been directed by government to overhaul their disciplinary procedures and make them open to public scrutiny. After all, the removal from a professional register is tantamount to a fine of almost unlimited levels and the loss of a lifetime`s investment in time and money.

VENABLES, LEGALLY, MORALLY, PHILOSOPHICALLY, AND FINANCIALLY

 

06. Mar. 2010. – 12:19:34

Like many others involved directly with the legal system I`ve been thinking through the facts in the Venables case. He is only the fourth individual to have had life lifelong anonymity granted to him. The others being his co defendant Robert Thompson and Mary Bell and her daughter. With Venables in custody and its being only a matter of time before full details are available officially or unofficially decisions will have to be taken on whether he has forfeited his cloak of invisibility. This is primarily a legal and arguably a moral decision. However I pose the question that if he has an absolute right to anonymity would that continue if he were to appear in court on a serious charge? Irrespective of the outcome of said trial would he be offered a further change of identity? Is this process an indefinite guarantee? The legal answers, the moral viewpoints and the financial implications are on a collision course.

SELF INDUCED DRUNKEN SEMI CONSCIOUS ABUSIVE WORDS

 

05. Mar. 2010. – 11:24:29

Recent retiring room discussions reminded me of an interesting case on which I sat four or five years ago. A young Somali woman faced a charge of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour ". She was not represented.

In the street she was very drunk and the medic on the ambulance which had been called by a bystander could not persuade her to go to hospital so he called police and with their knowledge left to attend another emergency call. On their arrival her situation seemed precarious....she was in and out of consciousness and they recalled the ambulance. Before its arrival for a second time she appeared to be more lucid and began swearing and verbally abusing the officers who arrested her, took her to the station where she was charged. In her own defence she agreed she was so drunk she remembered nothing at all of the incident. She continued her denial under cross examination.

Discussing whether or not the CPS had proved the charge we decided that her intoxication went beyond an aggravating factor and that if we accepted her version she was without awareness, control or intent. However our legal adviser on hearing our intended conclusion and referring to the appropriate sections told us that if intoxication is self administered awareness of which the defendant had none must be considered as if not intoxicated and therefore she was guilty.

I cannot recollect having sat on a similar case since.

MAGISTRATES SHOULD BE ABLE TO SIT PAST 70

 03. Mar. 2010. – 19:15:29 

It`s well known now that this is the age of the baby boomers; those fortunate enough to have been born between the end of WW2 and 1960. I`m proud to mention that I`m one of them. Like the others I have been blessed with the most nutritious feeding in my younger years from free orange juice the unique taste of which is still there in a few synapses of my long term memory, the daily supply of free milk at primary school, the lack of junk food because it was not available and a grant from the local authority which along with vocational working allowed me to emerge from a university education owing not a penny. But then I was part of the privileged some would say 10% of eighteen year olds who attended university.

Like my peers I look forward to being intellectually and physically active until I make it four score years unless the gods on high will it otherwise. The Ministry of Justice certainly wills it otherwise. Retirement for Justices of the Peace at 70 is compulsory. The Magistrates Association takes a not unsympathetic view to the possibility of this age being extended provided the individual has retained all the competences necessary to do the job. Its Council is meeting on 25th March and will be discussing this mandatory retirement age. If and when I meet the biblical three score years and ten I hope that health, demographics, economics and wise counsel will prevail with the Ministry and I will be able to extend my time on the Bench. 

MAGISTRATES & ANOTHER LABOUR INITIATIVE

 03. Mar. 2010. – 14:23:41

Today the Home Secretary has announced another "government initiative"; The "Safe and Confident Neighbourhoods" strategy he asserts will build on the success of neighbourhood policing and will ensure anyone with a concern about crime and antisocial behaviour gets the assistance they need. This is another pre election announcement purporting to be a policy but is rather a good intention re-stating what is or should be expected from current management. Whilst it is possible to hold one`s self up to be a hostage of fortune when commenting on government`s intentions when very little is known of the practicalities there is one aspect published which I find disturbing. He outlined a strategy which included inviting chairs of magistrates' benches to make appropriate arrangements by which magistrates could be involved with neighbourhood partnerships in their areas, whilst protecting judicial independence and avoiding any perception of bias;

Call me old fashioned but my view is that Magistrates who are all unpaid volunteers are best suited for that which they have been extensively and expensively trained; to preside over courts of justice where 95% of criminal cases are heard. In their own time many JPs are involved with "Magistrates in the Community" programme demonstrating to local school children just how the legal system works including mock trials where children assume the roles of the court officers....magistrates, lawyers, probation officers etc. Many colleagues also have roles within local organisations giving insights and personal opinions of their role in particular and in general. But the wording of the above quoted paragraph leads me to wonder whether the "arrangements" to which references are made are perhaps at the boundary of what members of the judiciary should be expected to do especially re-reading the last phrase "whilst protecting judicial independence and avoiding any perception of bias" 

VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENTS & NOW VICTIM SENTENCING

 26. Feb. 2010. – 10:51:47

A system of criminal justice whether in Biblical times or England in the 17th or 21st century arises and develops when the squire, lord of the manor, earl or laterally the state dispenses justice with a dispassionate hand to maintain order and to remove the likelihood of vigilantism, victims` revenge, vendetta or however one would describe taking the law into one`s own hands.
Victim Impact Statements were introduced into our legal system by that arch-meddler Harriet Harman, when she was minister for constitutional affairs. It is intended to explain the effects upon the victim[s] of the offender`s actions. It was trumpeted as not being intended to affect sentencing. If sentencing were by mathematical calculation on a grid chart that might just be credible but it is flesh and blood judges who sentence. To assert that they are immune from emotional influence is a gross untruth.

It seems that comments on Greater Manchester Police have been a source of a few topics on this blog. Today is another when that force`s initiatives for good or evil have informed this effort.
In May, Tameside and Salford divisions will pilot schemes in which victims of low level criminal activity influence in how these miscreants should be punished. The scheme will see officers working with victims of shoplifting, criminal damage and anti-social behaviour to find alternative punishments to arrest and charge. So here we have more offenders not only being tried, convicted and sentenced by police without recourse to a court of law but with the added input of victim retribution albeit tempered and not allowed to develop into a full scale eye for an eye sharia type retribution.

I cannot overstate my complete opposition to such developments. Whatever the ostensibly benign motives behind this proposal it is the increasingly not so thin edge of an ever increasing wedge with the potential to develop into what can without euphemism be termed a "police state". A culture of police authoritarianism is slowly gaining momentum and with the public cynicism of our parliamentarians in full flow who or what is there to plug the leaks in our democracy? 

 

POLICE CHIEF GONE MISSING

 

26. Feb. 2010. – 10:18:18

There are sometimes when one wonders how sub editors earn their pay. In today`s Leicester Mercury there is the headline:

"Search is on for new Leicestershire police chief"

Perhaps he got lost on the way to his new office.......