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
Fee Proposal
The government has made the criminal Bar an offer. It’s a single package which will require new investment.
The decision to accept it or reject it will be yours in a ballot.
There are very significant immediate improvements to prosecution fees, (all the high value changes we have been publicly asking for, and in fact more than this):
- day 1 will be defined as the first day a trial is listed,
- day 2 will be paid as a full separate refresher,
- refreshers will not be reduced from day 41,
- all fixed fees will be increased to AGFS rates (eg £55 TNPs will increase to £380, appeals against conviction will increase from £117 to £250, standard appearance fees increase from £46.50 to £90, and sentence fees from £60 to £125),
- trial fees will be payable immediately where the case is adjourned for sentence.
The full review of prosecution fees will continue and report by 30th September. We are confident that this review will lead to significant increases to many if not all brief fees, to reflect the greater demands of the work and the fact that there have been no increases for so long, and crucially there will be payment for unused material for the first time.
The MOJ has agreed to accelerate the review of AGFS Scheme 11 in respect of (1) high volumes of evidence (PPE) cases, (2) cracks, and (3) the payment of unused material, and will publish proposals to deal with these three areas by November. This means that new fees and structures will be in place at least a year earlier than had previously been envisaged, and it decouples the solutions to these serious problems from the wider review which will take much longer to deliver.
'Suspects left in legal limbo by delays to inquiries, say solicitors'
Suspects are increasingly being left in legal limbo as they are subjected to inquiries lasting years that sometimes end with the case being dropped, a survey of criminal solicitors has revealed.
The full extent of police use of the “released under investigation” (RUI) tactic is revealed in a study that shows more than half of firms who responded represent clients who have been waiting for between 18 months and two years. The study by the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association (LCCSA) was conducted in the capital, the south-east and north-west of England. In one case a suspect was found to have been waiting four years for his case to be resolved.
'Child abuse viewers should avoid prosecution, report suggests'
People arrested for viewing indecent images of children who do not have a criminal record should undertake "life skills" courses rather than face prosecution, according to a report. The recommendation comes from campaign group Justice, and is designed to help cope with a surge in sex offences.
Justice's proposed life skills scheme for first time offenders, or those without a criminal record, would include five sessions over four months, and one follow-up session eight months later. The sessions - designed to "educate and assist" rather than "shame and punish" - would include advice on "strategies to manage impulses" and "safe internet behaviour".
'Same Roof' Rule Abolished
From today (13 June 2019) more victims of violent crime will be able to apply for compensation as new legislation comes into force abolishing the longstanding ‘same-roof’ rule.
The so-called ‘same roof rule’ was part of the original (non-statutory) compensation scheme introduced in 1964. The rule was changed in October 1979, but the changes were not made retrospective. In July 2018 the Court of Appeal decided that the ‘same-roof’ rule had unfairly denied a claimant who was abused by her stepfather the right to compensation. The government chose to not appeal this judgment, and confirmed that the rule would be removed as part of the Victims Strategy published in September.
HMP Bristol Urgent Notification
The Chief Inspector of Prisons triggered the urgent notification process for HMP Bristol on 11 June 2019.
Cases
R v Woodward & Ors [2019] EWCA Crim 1002
This case raises some of the issues that may arise when the jury separates during the course of deliberating on their verdicts to allow jurors to take pre-booked holidays.
Although Mr Borrelli made no criticisms of the directions of law or the summing up, he submitted that, by the time the verdicts were returned against the appellants, 8 weeks had passed since the conclusion of the summing-up and over 11 weeks since the evidence had concluded... The trial process had become wholly disjointed by delays which had resulted in the jury separating for periods of 20 and 22 days during retirement, without any sufficient reminder of the evidence.
There can be no general rule which determines that a particular length of time that a jury have been dispersed in the course of its deliberations necessarily renders a trial unfair or otherwise calls into question the safety of a conviction. The issue involves a fact sensitive analysis, as the court recognised in A, Heppenstall and Potter (above) at [32].
R v Challen [2019] EWCA Crim 916
On 14 August 2010 the appellant killed her husband of 31 years with 20 or more blows from a hammer. She was charged with murder. Her plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility was not accepted.
Ms Wade QC, who did not appear in the court below, advanced two grounds of appeal: 1. The fresh evidence on coercive control and the fresh psychiatrist evidence support the proposition that at the time of killing the appellant was suffering from an abnormality of mind. Had expert evidence on coercive control been available at the time of the trial, the jury may have reached a different conclusion on diminished responsibility. 2. The fresh evidence also goes to the issue of provocation in that it helps establish the appellant was provoked to kill the deceased because of his controlling and coercive behaviour.
We have been persuaded, therefore, that the unusual circumstances of this case, and we emphasise they are unusual, we should receive the fresh evidence of Dr Adshead... Having received Dr Adshead's opinion, therefore, we are satisfied that it does undermine the safety of the conviction. We shall quash that conviction.
Other
Criminal Justice: The Past and The Future - Sir Brian Leveson
Can I start by expressing my thanks for having been asked to deliver this lecture, although it is a particularly poignant time for me? In exactly 10 days’ time I reach the official age of judicial senility and will depart the scene after nearly 50 years of operating at all levels across the criminal justice system. It seems fitting therefore that this evening I start to talk about how a number of aspects of that system have evolved during my time working within it, and I will focus on the evolution and development of the trial process.
Sponsored
Crime Fees 4 - Fees Calculator for iOS and Android
Crime Fees enables lawyers in England and Wales to easily calculate legal aid fees for both prosecution and defence. All fee schemes are covered: LGFS, CPS Scheme C, the new December 2018 AGFS (Scheme 11), the April 2018 AGFS (Scheme 10), and the old 2012 AGFS (Scheme 9).