Judi Evans

Pensioner, 81, convicted of not taxing a car he bought, couldn't use, then sold - because his walking frame didn't fit #SingleJusticeProcedure conviction over £17.50 unpaid tax Constituent of @ChrisVinceMP Another example for @sarahsackman Prosecutors must read mitigation

Today, 17th October 2024, the maximum sentencing powers in the Magistrates’ Court for one offence for which a defendant can choose trial in the Magistrates’ Court or Crown Court has been increased to 12 months imprisonment with immediate effect. Statement from @TheCriminalBar Chair Any cynical defendant on bail who wishes to avoid the risk of a sentence of 12 months rather than six and who wishes to avoid dealing with their case will elect trial and wait in the Crown Court backlog for the 2-3 years that it will take for their trial to be reached. This is likely to be those whose cases involve violence against women and girls. Increasing the number of cases in the Magistrates’ Court by increasing the sentencing powers has been tried before. Magistrates were all trained, no doubt at huge cost to conduct cases where the sentences were up to 12 months. No doubt that will need to be repeated.  It did not work. It was paused after a few months because the prisons were full. Tom Franklin, the Chief Executive of the Magistrates’ Association called it “a waste of time and money.”  It did not reduce the backlog in the Crown Court. We wait to see whether this will increase pressures on the prison system and increase the number of defendants who elect trial by jury, appeal to the Crown Court against conviction and/or sentence so that work is duplicated rather than reduced.  It was not so very long ago that mature conversations were being had about whether sentences of 12 months and under should be scrapped as they had been demonstrated not to work. Magistrates’ Courts require legally qualified and trained legal advisers to advise Magistrates on the law. There is a national shortage of them. The number of Magistrates, without whom the courts would grind to a halt, required to work at full capacity is 17,000 not the 13,340 we have. Magistrates are volunteers and have to pay their own costs of travel and child care, together with loss of earnings to sit. The number of outstanding cases in the Magistrates’ Court rose to 382,972 in February 2024 up from 337,481 in February 2023.  Transform Justice completed a survey, published in April 2024 which demonstrated that prosecutors’ inefficiency was due to having to deal with too many cases. It places our prosecutors under a considerable burden. Technology was often not fit for purpose. Criminal defence solicitors are leaving the profession ind roves because the work load is soul destroying.  We know that this government has inherited a broken, dysfunctional criminal justice system. It needs proper financial investment and it needs it now. The Magistrates’ Conference this November is entitled “Solutions not Sticking Plasters.” Every participant in the criminal justice system has the same desire. Instead of dealing with the latest crisis, let’s fix the criminal justice system that used to be the envy of the world. Please listen to the people who work in the system. Let us all, Magistrates, Criminal Solicitors, Court Staff, Criminal Barrister Barristers and Judges help you to mend the broken heart of this system. No more sticking plasters. No more lurching from crisis to crisis. Invest whilst you still can.”

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