Avoidable Delays in Magistrates' Courts
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838705100307 |
| Author | Eric Crowther |
| Published date | 01 August 1987 |
| Date | 01 August 1987 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
AVOIDABLE DELAYS
IN
MAGISTRATES’
COURTS
Eric
Crowrher
0.
B.
E.
*
I left the Bar nearly twenty years ago, having practised at
it
for
seventeen years. I remember asking for an adjournment
or
a
remand on only four occasions. Once it was granted without
difficulty, twice
I
was sternly rebuked for my impertinence, and in
the other case, one
of
incest at the Central Criminal Court, Edmund
Davies J. granted my application for a remand
to
get a psychiatric
report, but warned me: “You will probably regret this”. He knew
what I did not know, that the next “red” Judge coming there would
be Hilbery
J.
Now there has been a change: I think I can confidently assert that.
A group
of
overseas students visited my court quite recently and at
the end
of
the morning an Italian asked me: “When do cases
actually get dealt with? You are obviously only fixing dates for
hearings.” And
I
realised that out
of
forty cases in my morning list
only one, a charge
of
drunk and disorderly, had reached its
conclusion. All the others had been remanded
or
adjourned at the
request
of
either the Crown Prosecution Service
or
the defence. I
felt ashamed at my recently assumed r61e
of
a kind
of
Dr.
Crocker-Harris, the organiser
of
the timetable in “The Browning
Version”.
Consider the case
of
Douglas Laye, paying particular attention
to
the dates involved:
(1)
2
January
2986
Mr.
Laye is arrested on a charge
of
assault
occasioning actual bodily harm in an incident
in which all parties have been celebrating the
New Year too well but not too wisely. The
police grant him bail to
15
January.
(2)
25
January
“Your Worships,” says the solicitor,
“this is the defendant’s first appearance
before the court and he wishes
to
instruct his
own solicitor. Can the case be remanded for
two weeks?”
Senior Stipendiary Magistrate, Horseferry Road Magistrates’
Court.
31
1
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