More than 100 lawyers who wrote to the Ministry of Justice expressing significant concerns about plans to severely restrict jury trials say representations by the legal profession are being ignored.
The government is expected to formally announce the changes, which have caused deep division among the judiciary and senior lawyers, as soon as next week.
The letter, whose signatories include 23 king’s counsel, expressed “deep concern” at the changes and said the recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson’s report would not reduce the court backlog.
It called the plan to introduce judge-alone trials for all but the most serious offences an “irremediable error” that would end an ancient right for little benefit.
Jodie Blackstock, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers and former legal director at Justice, said they were alarmed at the lack of response. “The Ministry of Justice has announced it intends to go even further than the un-evidenced recommendations of Sir Brian Leveson,” she said.
“We are deeply concerned that our extensive experience is simply being ignored. As is the well-known and troubling reality that judicial decisions lack the disparity of 12 jurors.”
The Criminal Bar Association has also expressed anger at the proposals. Chair Riel Karmy-Jones KC said: “The erosion of the right to jury trial will break the increasingly thin connection between the state and ordinary people, and risks undermining social cohesion and trust in the criminal justice system. Once that trust disappears, fears of tyrannical governments increase and the faith in justice evaporates for good.”
A leaked letter from Lammy on Tuesday outlined radical proposals that will mean juries will pass judgment only on public interest offences with possible prison sentences of more than five years, such as murder, rape and manslaughter.
Judges will preside alone over trials of other serious offences meriting prison sentences of up to five years. Magistrates’ powers are also to be increased, by extending their remit from offences carrying a maximum sentence of one year to two years, further eroding the right to a jury trial.
In an interview with the Guardian last week, the courts minister, Sarah Sackman said the backlog of up to 80,000 cases was cause huge harm to victims as well as defendants. “Behind these 80,000-odd cases that are waiting in the backlog, there are individual stories and individual lives being put on hold behind each and every one of those cases,” she said.
“I’ve spoken to victims and survivors who tell me they’ve lost their jobs, they suffered mental breakdown all the while that they were waiting. More victims and witnesses are pulling out of the process because they cannot wait that long. That is [a] compelling illustration of justice delayed being justice denied.”
Pressure groups have also highlighted the justice secretary’s own 2017 review into prejudice in the criminal justice system as evidence that juries help to root out racism. Lammy’s criminal justice review, commissioned by David Cameron when he was prime minister, concluded that juries “act as a filter for prejudice”.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “No final decision has been taken by government. We have been clear there is a crisis in the courts, causing pain and anguish to victims – with 78,000 cases in the backlog and rising – which will require bold action to put right.”
