Criminal barristers have hit out at the phenomena of ‘hot courting’, which is causing delays for judges, counsel, witnesses and jurors.
Writing in her weekly blog, Criminal Bar Association chair Caroline Goodwin QC revealed the ‘fiasco’ of a judge in a recent three-day trial who was sharing his court with another judge for reasons of ‘logistical penny pinching’ and ‘saving electric’. Consequently, the second trial was listed to begin before the first judge had finished summing up. The result was that the jury was kept waiting, witnesses had to ‘make significant rearrangements’ to enable the trial to continue, and the trial took longer than expected.
