A place originally set up to report the under-use of Crown Courts in England and Wales. Now a place to report on the daily failings of a system unable to cope.
Jan 27, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
🧵 This is going to be a long thread. Please bear with it, because it demonstrates the absolutely hopeless state, and indeed impossible state, of the listings in just one Crown Court, Nottingham, today.
Nottingham has 9 courts. All are sitting.
In Court 1, there are 19 defendants across a number of cases. This courtroom is being serviced by 3 different judges throughout the day. It is a very full list for a single courtroom.
In Court 2 the position is no better. There are 18 defendants involved in many cases.
Aug 15, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
🧵 The state of our CJS today. From a correspondent somewhere in England or Wales “In 2020 4 young girls aged between 12 and 15 came to light as complainants. Their alleged sexual abuse had been going on for 3 years. A large enquiry was commenced. 1/.
4 girls in total came forward, made complaints and were video interviewed. All were vulnerable, all had troubled domestic circumstances.
In Feb 2021 a trial date was set for the end of October 2021. The trial was expected to take more than 5 days. 2/.
Jun 16, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Rape trials: a thread.
If you have never taken any part in a rape trial, either as a party, a witness or a juror, you might think that the government’s announcement today of specialist courts to improve conviction rates is a very good idea. 1/
You would be wrong. Believe it or not, all rape investigations and trials at the moment are dealt with by specialist professionals; from the police, the CPS lawyers who decide on charge, the trial advocates and the judge. 2/
Feb 25, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
🧵I have had a number of non-lawyers contact the account asking for an explanation of why the courts are struggling when they are all now sitting. This is my best analogy in response.
If you likened the Court system to a sausage factory, you could have all of the machines 1/
trying to run at full pelt, but you now haven’t got enough machines, because you sold some of them off in times when you wanted to make a quick profit.
Additionally, you actually haven’t now got the employees to work the machines because no one wants to work in your factory 2/
Sep 12, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
From a fellow barrister highlighting the difference between Government spin and real life on the ground.
“I have just concluded a very arduous and challenging "socially distanced" jury trial, which was estimated to last 7 days and ended up lasting 3 weeks. 1/
For those who are interested, there is no "world beating" fast-track Covid-19 testing currently in place from the Ministry of Justice for jurors, advocates or any other court staff who might suspect they have the virus. 2/
