Criminal

Can the Law Commission’s consultation finally deliver radical reforms 30 years in the making? Martin Rackstraw weighs up the issues at hand

Planned cuts to the Civil Service risk adding further pressure to a public court system already at breaking point: Mark Jones & Alex Curran report on the deepening crisis

The wrongful convictions of innocent sub-postmasters and of Andrew Malkinson, who was also entirely innocent, are shocking. The appeals system has been in need of ‘radical overhaul’ for decades, Martin Rackstraw, criminal partner at Russell-Cooke, writes in this week’s NLJ.

The Chancellor plans to cut 15% from the civil service budget in the next five years. How would this affect the courts and justice system? In this week’s NLJ, Mark Jones, partner, and Alex Curran, senior associate, Payne Hicks Beach, look at the potential impact from a range of perspectives if the Ministry of Justice budget is cut by 15%, including the criminal courts—where the backlog is so extreme that ‘at Snaresbrook Crown Court, trials for suspects on bail are currently being listed in November 2028’.

Judicial bullying and poor conduct appear to be increasing, according to Criminal Bar Association (CBA) research.

Imprisoning mothers has a devastating impact on more than the incarcerated. In this week’s NLJ, Rona Epstein explains the long-term effects on the mother’s children and urges the government to reconsider sentencing laws.

A prison sentence is devastating for mother & child, writes Rona Epstein

The Sentencing Council has suspended its guideline after the Lord Chancellor threatened to introduce blocking legislation, in an extraordinary political row over ‘two-tier’ justice.

The Crown Court backlog has risen 11% to an all-time high of more than 74,000 cases.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has launched an information resource to help potential applicants and other members of the public