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Barristers reject Leveson plans

30 July 2025
Issue: 8127 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal
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Criminal barristers have firmly rebuffed Sir Brian Leveson’s proposals to restrict jury trials and move a tranche of cases to a judge sitting with two magistrates

A seven-day snapshot survey commissioned by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) and conducted by Professor Katrin Hohl, City of St George’s, University of London, received a weighty response, with 2,029 criminal barristers taking part.

In her Monday Message this week, CBA chair Mary Prior KC said 93% opposed removing the right to appeal a judge’s decision to move a case to the new Crown Court Bench Division (CCBD) rather than offer a jury trial, and 78% opposed judge-only trials for complex and serious fraud.

Some 92% and 91%, respectively, opposed allowing CCBD cases to include sexual offences against children, and sexual offences against adults.

84% opposed the removal of a defendant’s automatic right to appeal against conviction from the magistrates’ court, and 86% were against CCBDs hearing cases involving violence against women and girls, including stalking and voyeurism.

Sir Brian’s 388-page Independent Review of the Criminal Courts: Part 1, published last month, proposed that defendants facing a maximum sentence of two years or less be able to opt out of jury trials and instead be heard by a judge and two magistrates—a new court division, the CCBD. He suggested defendants lose the right to an automatic right to appeal and that jury trials be dispensed with for serious and complex fraud cases.

Asked for their top two priorities for the justice system, 82% of CBA members said increasing Crown Court sitting days, and 71% said increasing court efficiency by ensuring prisoners reach court in time, Wi-Fi, audio and video equipment works and any interpreters required are present. 27% said Crown Court judges should have a background in criminal law, and 10% voted to fix the leaks, lifts and other building disrepairs.

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NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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