About
A free weekly collection of criminal law links - for practitioners, law students, and anyone with an interest in the criminal justice system of England and Wales.
Curated by Sam Willis, a barrister at 5 King's Bench Walk.
Crime Fees 5 - CPS Scheme E
Version 5 of Crime Fees brings the new CPS Scheme E (in force from 1 February 2020) and is also now available for MacOS.
Further changes include:
- Fees in your Basket and saved Cases are now synced using iCloud across all of your devices running iOS and macOS
- You can now add mutiple Custom Fees to a case e.g. if you are funded privately for two hearings, you can add them both to one Basket and save them as one Case
News
'Boris Johnson told: You got your majority, now fix our justice system'
With a sizeable majority secured, the eyes of the legal profession now turn to Boris Johnson and his government and how they intend to run the justice system. The Law Society said today that repairing the system and championing the rule of law should be priorities of the new administration, alongside negotiating a future trade deal with the European Union. Society vice president David Greene said Johnson takes office once more with the justice system of England and Wales ‘on its knees’.
The Society called for restoration of legal aid for early advice in housing and family matters, a rise in criminal legal aid fees and a guarantee of no future real-terms cuts, and an increase in the legal aid means test. The Criminal Bar Association echoed those sentiments and made clear that the justice system needs urgent injections of funding.
Transforming Summary Justice and Better Case Management Update
In respect of TSJ magistrates have recently been provided with a revised two pager “essentials” guide to improve their understanding and consistent application of the case management provisions set out in the Criminal Procedure Rules.
For BCM the Defence Toolkit has also recently been updated. It was developed with the help of people from all parts of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) including the police, CPS, court staff, the judiciary and the defence and contains practical advice and guidance for practitioners with the aim ensuring that justice is open, fair and timely.
The guidance for magistrates can be found here and the toolkit for defence lawyers can be found here.
‘Met Police drops half of all crime probes within 24 hours, figures show’
Nearly half of all crimes - 1,114 offences a day - are being dropped without a full investigation, according to Met Police figures.
A total of 337,826 crimes reported by the public were “screened out”, some within 24 hours, by the force between January and October this year — a staggering 44 per cent.
Cases
McCann Sentencing Remarks
Joseph McCann, you are very dangerous indeed to people who are weaker than you are. Among other things you are a coward, a violent bully and a paedophile. You will be dealt with as a dangerous offender, for the second time in your life.
The other offences taken together and with the 4 offences for which I have imposed determinate sentences are all so serious that a life sentence is justified and therefore required for each of them. I therefore impose 33 life sentences on you... The minimum term which must be served before the Parole Board can even think about letting you out is, in each case, 30 years.
R v McCarthy [2019] EWCA Crim 2202
This is an appeal against sentence by leave of the single judge. It involves consideration of the extent to which the consent of the victims of offences of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, which were committed by the appellant in the course of carrying out body modification procedures on customers of his then business, is relevant to sentence and, if so, to what extent.
International
'Why are there so few prisoners in the Netherlands?'
The Dutch justice system is cutting jail populations by offering specialist rehabilitation to people with mental illnesses
Other
'When a DNA Test Says You’re a Younger Man, Who Lives 5,000 Miles Away' (£££)
Three months after his bone marrow transplant, Chris Long of Reno, Nev., learned that the DNA in his blood had changed. It had all been replaced by the DNA of his donor, a German man he had exchanged just a handful of messages with.
... But four years after his lifesaving procedure, it was not only Mr. Long’s blood that was affected. Swabs of his lips and cheeks contained his DNA — but also that of his donor. Even more surprising to Mr. Long and other colleagues at the crime lab, all of the DNA in his semen belonged to his donor.
Sponsored
Crime Fees 5 - Fees Calculator for iOS, macOS and Android
Crime Fees enables criminal lawyers in England and Wales to easily calculate legal aid fees for both prosecution and defence. All fee schemes are covered: LGFS, CPS Scheme E, CPS Scheme D, CPS Scheme C, AGFS 11, AGFS 10 and AGFS 9.