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COVID-19: Jury debate

15 July 2020
Issue: 7895 / Categories: Legal News , Covid-19 , Criminal
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Jury trials were due to resume at Durham, Chester, Bolton, Snaresbrook, Inner London and Leeds Crown Courts this week, following health and safety assessments

This brings the total number of courts deemed safe for jury trials to 48.

The government has identified ten suitable venues for Blackstone courts (the legal equivalent of Nightingale hospitals).

However, it has not yet announced a decision on its controversial proposals to hold judge-only trials for ‘either way’ cases or cut the number of jurors to seven.

Law Society president Simon Davis and Bar Council chair Amanda Pinto QC have opposed the proposals robustly, pointing out jury trials are vital for the rule of law and the backlog was already approaching 40,000 before the pandemic ‘as the government did not fund the judicial time needed’. 

Issue: 7895 / Categories: Legal News , Covid-19 , Criminal
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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
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
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
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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