VACANT and VACATED

 

by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 11. Nov. 2010. – 12:56:44

A full day`s sitting last month did not seem to hold any surprises when I consulted the court lists at 9.30am. There were two trials to be prosecuted by the CPS scheduled for the morning and one for the afternoon. Apart from extremely simple matters such as no insurance or some non CPS matters very few trials are listed for less than half a day. Having two trials listed that morning each an allegation of assault but one in a domestic context was normal. The official policy it seems is that with a high rate of cracked or non effective trials the only way to improve efficiency is to double list. In blunt terms if everyone appears for both matters one of them is likely to be adjourned or to go part heard…….rough justice for a defendant, his/her lawyer and witnesses if any.

On that day priority was given to the DV case and so from 10.00am after the usual preliminaries and request from the prosecutor to have a very short adjournment with the Officer in the Case we heard a sorry tale of why he could not proceed. At that moment the defendant, a grim faced well built male of twenty seven, seemed unable to suppress the hint of smile. We were told of a history of statements made by the complainant at the scene, repeated at the police station a day later, withdrawn a month after that, the withdrawal itself withdrawn four weeks prior to trial and now a refusal to appear even although she had briefly attended court at 9.30am. The prosecutor announced formally that he was offering no evidence and accordingly we dismissed the case. During a brief recess we were told that a previous bench had found the defendant not guilty of a breach of his bail condition of non contact with the complainant. The strong sweet black Italian coffee didn`t taste as good as usual.

The second case of assault was of the usual kind insofar as there is a “usual” kind. An argument in a pub leads to an altercation outside and the loser gets a bloody nose whilst the defendant is in the dock unrepresented after being refused legal aid on income grounds which means he earns more than about £21K. He was forty four, had dressed for the occasion, well cut suit and white shirt and tie. He seemed to be comfortable in such clothing and judging by his address lived in a smart part of town. I often wonder why those who might have money for cars, holidays and restaurants don`t spend some of it on a lawyer when they are before the court especially when they are of good character. This chap, when the crunch came and he was asked if his plea was still not guilty, decided that at this the third listing he would change his plea.

So by 11.15am our official morning list was over. We did manage to employ ourselves undertaking the Queen`s business until about 12.30pm by taking work from the remand court which is so over burdened by design that without other courts` availability due process would be impossible.

And so at 2.00pm with two new colleagues we said our “Good afternoons” to the few assembled for my third attempt at a trial that day. Arthur Nixon, Nick Arthur or Arthur Nicholas aged 37 was on our list as having assaulted a male and a female, his wife`s brother and the brother`s girl friend six months previously. CPS prosecutor rose to tell us that nobody has appeared. Both the defendant and the wife`s brother were apparently serving time for Her Majesty and the female was not contactable. When enquiry was made as to why all this was not taken into account by the CPS during normal review prior to trial and information conveyed to the court we were not surprised to be told that reduced staff availability had led to a lowering of quality control. He shrugged, our L/A sighed and my two colleagues who had been rostered only for the afternoon moaned audibly when we were told that there was another bench taking remand court`s leftovers. We were released about 2.20pm.

Such is the reality of why a court does not always reach 80% utilisation demanded by the Minister of Justice.