Faced with an unwieldy and ever-rising backlog of cases at the Crown Court, the Ministry of Justice is considering introducing an ‘intermediate tier’ and has put Sir Brian Leveson in charge of a review. In this week’s NLJ, Charles Kuhn, partner at Clyde & Co, examines the possibilities, the potential savings and the impact on justice.
Kuhn explores the truth behind the view that juries represent ‘a cross-section’ of society, as well as research indicating jury understanding of many cases may be limited.
Kuhn writes: ‘How will Sir Brian Leveson objectively measure whether the traditional jury can be safely dispensed with?... He may rely on confidence polls and surveys, and—if presented with war stories from the Bar—will need quantum-level processing support and a saint-like patience to sift through the reams of anecdotal evidence. It will be interesting to see his methodology.’RELATED ARTICLES
