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.
News
'Barristers’ strike disrupts more than 6,000 court hearings in first 19 days as action escalates'
More than 6,000 court hearings were disrupted by the first 19 days of a strike by criminal barristers, data shows as they walk out for another week. Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have escalated their action over the government rates paid to defend people who cannot afford legal representation since June. Justice secretary Dominic Raab has not met the association and ministers have refused to negotiate on key demands, which stem from a government-commissioned review of legal aid.
Defence barristers are walking out on alternate weeks, and are being balloted on a complete, indefinite strike that would start on 5 September. Data released by the Ministry of Justice shows that the first 19 days of action, which took place between 27 June and 5 August, caused 6,235 court cases to be disrupted, including 1,415 trials, across England and Wales.
'Law Society calls for 'sustained investment' in courts to cut worsening case backlog'
The Law Society has called on the government to make “sustained investment” in the UK’s court system after new data showed the case backlog has gotten worse over the previous quarter. The backlog of cases waiting to be heard in the England and Wales Crown Courts has increased from 58,540 in April to 58,973 in June, HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) statistics show. The addition of 433 new cases to the country’s Crown Court backlogs comes after the backlog had begun to fall over the first three months of 2022 after surging to record highs during Covid-19. The statistics show the court backlog had already begun to worsen before barristers voted in favour of plans to stage a series of court walkouts from the end of June...
Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said: “Courts are in a crumbling state and the criminal justice system is on its knees.” “To make a significant dent in the backlog, sustained investment is needed to ensure there are enough judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers to cover the mountain of cases,” the Law Society president said. “Firstly, the UK government should commit to the bare minimum 15% increase in criminal legal aid rates for criminal defence solicitors as recommended by Lord Bellamy.” An MoJ spokesperson said the longer term reduction in the case backlog over the previous year shows the success of the government’s efforts to tackle the buildup of cases.
'New duty solicitor rota illustrates decline of criminal legal aid'
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has today announced which criminal law firms will provide legal advice to people brought in for questioning in police stations via the duty solicitor rotas for October 2022, with the number of solicitors falling by 9.4% and the number of firms falling by 5.4% compared to the current duty rota...
The number of firms doing criminal defence work has roughly halved in the last 15 years. As of February 2022, there were just 1,062 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract compared with 2,010 in October 2007. A Law Society survey found only 4% of duty solicitors are aged under 35, and 81% of junior lawyers stated that criminal law is not an attractive long-term career. Many defence solicitors are crossing the courtroom to the Crown Prosecution Service or switching to other areas of the law for better pay and conditions.
'Closed-door court process criticised after Everard vigil prosecutions dropped'
Solicitors representing some of the people who no longer face prosecution for attending a vigil for Sarah Everard last year have criticised the ‘closed door’ process of the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) and raised conflict of interest concerns. Over the weekend The Guardian reported that the Crown Prosecution Service discontinued attempts by the Metropolitan Police to prosecute six protestors as it was not in the public interest. A spokesperson for the CPS said: ‘We have a duty to keep cases under continuous review and we concluded that our legal test for a prosecution was not met.’
One of the protestors, Dania Al-Obeid, was represented by Commons Legal solicitor Grace Loncraine. Loncraine said that her client had not received an SJP notice and was convicted under the Single Justice Procedure in her absence. She found out about it only after being contacted by the Evening Standard courts correspondent, Tristan Kirk. She then completed a statutory declaration to the effect she did not know about her conviction, which was accepted by the magistrates’ court. The conviction was reopened. She pleaded not guilty and the case was sent for trial in the magistrates' court in the usual way. The CPS took over the prosecution from the Met when Al-Obeid pleaded not guilty.
'Police officers violent to women will be sacked under new guidance'
Police officers who are violent towards women or girls can expect to be sacked, under new guidance for misconduct within police ranks. The College of Policing has reviewed the penalties for breaches of police standards in a bid to "bring common sense and consistency" to the process. It concludes violence against women or girls by police officers will always have a "high degree of culpability".
Behaviour will still be considered on a case by case basis. But those found guilty should normally be dismissed and barred from the police, the college said. The CoP - which is responsible for setting standards of ethics and training for the police service - has tightened up its guidance following recent cases where police officers have abused and attacked women. In 2021 Sarah Everard was abducted and murdered by a serving Metropolitan Police officer. Police officers who break the law can be prosecuted. Misconduct hearings can also follow either criminal convictions or less serious breaches of police professional standards. They are chaired either by a senior officer or a person with a legal qualification, and can result in a written warning, reduction in rank or dismissal without notice. The new guidance is for these hearings and designed to ensure a consistent approach is taken - in order to prevent abusive officers from remaining in their jobs.
Cases
R v Andrewes [2022] UKSC 24
This appeal raises an important issue on the confiscation regime laid down by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (“POCA”). It concerns what is often referred to as “cv fraud” (“cv” being shorthand for “curriculum vitae”). Typically, as in this case, this occurs where a fraudster includes lies on his or her application form for a job (for example, by including qualifications or experience which he or she does not have) and, as a result, is appointed to the job. The fraudster performs the agreed services satisfactorily and is paid the agreed salary until the fraud is discovered. On a conviction for fraud, should there be a confiscation order stripping the fraudster of his or her earnings (net of tax and national insurance)? In particular, would such a confiscation order be disproportionate under the proviso in section 6(5) of POCA?...
... Although we are not attempting to deal with all possible circumstances, the answer to the question certified (see para 2) is that in cv fraud cases, where, focusing solely on the performance of services, the fraudster has given full value for the earnings received — and putting to one side where the performance of the services constitutes a criminal offence — it will normally be disproportionate under the proviso in section 6(5) to confiscate all the net earnings made. But it will be proportionate to confiscate the difference between the higher earnings made as a result of the cv fraud and the lower earnings that the defendant would have made had he or she not committed the cv fraud. In many situations of cv fraud, it will be appropriate, as a pragmatic approximation of that profit, simply to base it on the percentage difference between the fraudster’s initial salary in the new job obtained by fraud and the fraudster’s salary in his or her prior job. Moreover, there is no need for much time and effort to be expended in assessing, even in a broad-brush way, the difference between the earnings with and without the cv fraud if it is clear that, in any event, that difference will exceed the recoverable amount.
International
'Elshafee El Sheikh: Ex-Briton 'Isis Beatle' sentenced to life in prison'
An Islamic State group militant from the UK has been sentenced to life in prison by a US court for his involvement with a terror cell. El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, was convicted in April of hostage-taking, conspiracy to murder US citizens and supporting a terrorist organisation. Addressing the Sudanese-born Londoner, the judge called his actions "horrific, barbaric, brutal and criminal".
Elsheikh was the highest profile IS fighter to stand trial in the US. His actions are said to have resulted in the deaths of four US hostages. Journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig were all kidnapped and killed at the hands of the cell. Elsheikh has been sentenced to eight life sentences, served concurrently, with no option for parole.
Other
'Remove listing responsibility from judges, suggests Treasury minister'
A senior Treasury minister and barrister has called for a ‘radical overhaul’ of courts listings that would see the responsibility removed from judges. Writing in the Telegraph, Lucy Frazer QC MP, a former justice minister and solicitor-general, said it was ‘simply unacceptable’ that crime victims do not get timely redress. She said she has seen the justice system from every angle – as a barrister, solicitor general, minister for courts, prisons, legal aid, and victim...
Frazer said judges ‘fiercely guard’ their responsibility for listing ‘but the fixing of a court hearing is not a judicial decision’. ‘The listing of cases needs to be radically overhauled, completely reconsidered and responsibility rethought. We need to introduce smarter systems, introduce technology, including AI. This could be used to manage the court case load much more effectively. ‘It can be the case that more trials are vacated (ie don’t take place) in a month than go ahead. AI could be used to predict this better… We need to frontload cases and bring them begore the court at the earliest opportunity. And then we need a proper system to effectively manage them and understand how to swiftly fill the gaps where cases fall away. Handing control and oversight to the Ministry of Justice will allow a better coordination of all parts of the justice system.’