Solicitors step up battle over Lammy jury-curbs plan
Solicitors in England and Wales plan to mobilise to lobby MPs ahead of a debate on proposals to curb jury trials.
Britain’s justice secretary David Lammy last year announced plans to reduce the number of criminal cases that would be heard with juries, in an effort to reduce backlogs in the system.
According to the England-and-Wales Law Society Gazette, criminal-law practitioners will march to parliament tomorrow morning (10 March) to lobby MPs before the second reading of the Courts and Tribunals Bill in the House of Commons.
The solicitors will then move to a permitted location to protest.
The action is being led by the London Criminal Courts' Solicitors Association.
‘Modelling insufficient’
The Law Society of England and Wales declared today (9 March) that it opposed any restriction on jury trials.
According to the Gazette, its parliamentary briefing paper states that the British government’s modelling is insufficient in proving that judge-only trials will significantly cut the backlog.
If Lammy remains defiant, the solicitors’ organisation says, he should pilot Sir Brian Leveson’s recommendation – cases heard by a judge and two magistrates.
The briefing paper warns of potential legal challenges if the curbs are applied retrospectively and the risk of more unrepresented defendants in the magistrates’ courts, which have stricter legal-aid thresholds.
The Gazette says that Lammy faces a battle to get his legislation through parliament without major alterations.
Even before he presented his bill, MPs expressed outrage and concern over the prospect of jury trials being curbed.