Cracked trials and weak cases: Professor Michael Zander revisits his landmark 1993 Crown Court Study in this week's NLJ, arguing that its insights remain strikingly current
He highlights persistent concerns about defendants pleading guilty despite potential acquittals, with more than 1,000 ‘inconsistent pleaders’ a year and thousands of cracked trials in which late pleas waste vast police and witness time.
Judges and barristers rated around one fifth of contested cases as weak, with several thousand annually said not to merit prosecution.
The study also exposed the impact of ambush defences, prior convictions, and challenges to confessions or scientific evidence.
Despite these flaws, Zander found the system broadly functional—though not necessarily fair in every case. He concludes that, while a modern repeat of the research is improbable, there is little reason to think outcomes today would differ greatly.
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