LATE CHANGES OF PLEA

 

by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 25. Oct. 2010. – 14:40:32

Vacated trials are the bane of court life. A date has been set, usually two or three months previously, paperwork is collated, witnesses have been warned and on the due date along with CPS prosecuting staff, defence lawyer[s], usher and three magistrates or a judge rostered for duty everything is set to go. But no! A last minute bit of plea bargaining and a guilty plea to the original or a lesser charge means that much time, money and effort by many people has been wasted. This is intolerable. And it is what has transpired earlier today at Newcastle Crown Court when Newcastle United first team footballer Andy Carroll changed his plea and pleaded guilty to common assault. He had been due to stand trial for assault occasioning actual bodily harm last December. 

It should not be beyond the wit of man, even if that man were Kenneth Clarke, to offer proposals such that sanctions against such late decisions would reduce their propensity. 

JUDGES ON TARGET

 

by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 25. Oct. 2010. – 14:16:21

If the Magistrates` Association cannot secure widespread media coverage of its opposition to proposed court closures the judges surely can. After an analysis by Lord Justice Goldring, the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales Lord Judge agreed that for 46 courts the case for closure had been made and that 34 should remain open. The remaining 77 intended closures should be re-examined. For all its chairman`s huffing and puffing at this observer [comments October 24th] the fact remains that with one press release on October 23rd the senior judiciary have created greater interest in this matter than all the many pages of the M.A.`s Response document. Of course a few hundred judges in the public mind will carry greater authority than 28,000 J.P.s and perhaps rightly so. It is however no excuse for the failings of the M.A. which when asked to counter the greatest threat to the magistrates` courts` system for a generation has been unable to hit the target.