US EditionUK justice secretary proposes limiting jury trials to murder, manslaughter and rape cases amid record 78,000+ case backlog
- On Tuesday, Justice Secretary David Lammy proposed scrapping jury trials for most offences in England and Wales, keeping juries only for murder, rape, and manslaughter cases.
- The MoJ presentation produced earlier this month noted Crown Courts face a record backlog of more than 78,000 cases, which officials warn could exceed 100,000, delaying trials until late 2029 or early 2030.
- The MoJ briefing outlines creating a Crown Court Bench Division to hear many cases by judges alone, retaining judge-alone hearings for complex fraud, financial and cyber crime but removing lay magistrates in many serious trials.
- Legal bodies and opposition figures warned that removing jury trials would undermine a constitutional feature over 800 years old, risk fairness, remove the automatic right to appeal, and increase magistrates' sentencing powers to 24 months.
- The reforms require primary legislation scheduled for early next year, with ministers expected to set out detailed plans within the coming weeks and seek cross-Cabinet sign-off.
37 Articles
37 Articles
'Scrapping Jury Trials Is an Attempt to Fix a Broken Justice System by Smashing It to Pieces'
Anyone who has ever sat on a jury or taken part in a Crown Court trial as an advocate, witness, expert or Judge, knows that to dismiss them as no more than an exercise in administering the criminal law and determining guilt or innocence is a massive over-simplification. A Crown Court trial is first and foremost about people. Individuals who, because of poor luck, bad decision making, a particular predilection towards a criminality that sits in …
Scrapping jury trials won’t solve Britain’s legal backlog
A wise man once said that “jury trials are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement. Criminal trials without juries are a bad idea.” High office has a habit of deadening such wisdom, and now David Lammy, the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is proposing to abolish the ancient institution he had once defended for all but a few crimes. It would be one thing if, having decided that the jury was an institution not adapted to modern cond…
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