HAMLYN - College of Social Sciences and International Studies ...

Criminal Justice
achieved. 75 However, the danger is that defendants will be
rushed into premature decisions as to how to plead; that the
case will be dealt with before the defence are ready; and that
courts will send defendants to prison without waiting for
reports. The danger of rushing applies to the prosecution as
well. 76
The Government is currently preparing to launch a new major
inquiry into the business of the criminal courts "on the model of
Lord Woolf's inquiry into civil justice". 77 In September the Court
Service published a 75-page Consultation Paper entitled Transforming
the Crown Court. Commending the report, Lord Irvine
the Lord Chancellor said, "I intend that today's perception of a
fragmented and incoherent system with frustration, wasted time
and cancelled hearings will soon be as out of date as the quill
pen." 78 The ideas canvassed in the Consultation Paper included
more rigorous case preparation, active case management according
to streaming of cases, time limits enforced by sanctions
(including on-the-spot fines for lawyers), appropriate IT support
and changes in court listing to ensure that the case goes forward
on the date scheduled. The inquiry will include magistrates'
courts as well as Crown Courts. 79 I referred to my criticisms of
the Woolf reforms in my last lecture. I would be concerned if
innovations in civil justice based on the concept of judicial case
75 According to research in the pilot areas, the time taken to deal with offenders
from charge to disposal was cut from 85 days to 30 days for adults and from
89 days to 38 days for youths. Guilty pleas at a first hearing rose from 30 per
cent to 55 per cent. (Ernst and Young, Reducing Delay in the Criminal Justice
System: Evaluation of the Pilot Schemes (Home Office, 1999). For a critique of the
figures and of the Government's implementation of the Narey Report see
L. Bridges, Legal Action (October 1999), p. 6.
76 For an assessment of the dangers see for instance, L. Bridges and M. Jacobs,
Reducing Delay in the Criminal Justice System—the Views of Defence Lawyers
(LCD Research Series No. 4, March 1999).
77 LCD Press Notice, No. 349/99 (November 9, 1999).
78 LCD Press Notice, No. 259/99 (September 8, 1999).
79 The Lord Chancellor announced on December 14,1999 that the inquiry would
be conducted by Lord Justice Auld (The Times, December 15, 1999; LCD Press
Notice No. 386/1999). The terms of reference were to review "the practices
and procedures of, and the rules of evidence applied by, the criminal courts at
every level with a view to ensuring that they deliver justice fairly, by
streamlining all their processes, increasing their efficiency and strengthening
the effectiveness of their relationships with others across the whole of the
criminal justice system and having regard to the interests of all parties
including victims and witnesses, thereby promoting public confidence in the
rule of law". The review would be working to a deadline of December 2000.
72