‘Judges are to get mental health help to deal with sex crime cases, the new Lord Chief Justice has announced, as he said we must recognise that “judges are human” too. Sir Ian Burnett, who took on the role in October, said a new scheme will offer professional help to judges who deal with the most traumatic issues in their courtrooms.’
Read the story in the Telegraph here.
“Data due to be published by the Bar Council and shared with the Guardian reveals that in the past two years workloads have increased for 40% of criminal law practitioners in England and Wales, while a third said they were considering new career options. Nearly 60% of criminal bar staff surveyed said they were working more than 51 hours a week; of those nearly half were working more than 60 hours. Only half of the 1,346 barristers questioned said they felt able to balance their home and work lives.”
Read the full article on the Guardian website here (Barristers in England and Wales ‘in grip of mental health crisis’).
“There are obvious disadvantages about having women in Parliament. I do not know what is going to be done about their hats. How is a poor little man to get on with a couple of women wearing enormous hats in front of him?”
From: ‘Women’s suffrage 10 reasons why men opposed votes for women’, on the BBC website here.
Millicent Fawcett statue unveiled in Parliament Square
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b6951afa-47ae-11e8-8db5-58268675bbb1
This is the American Voice Over version which in my view is so much better in the telling of the story than the British version. Thank you to Rape Crisis
But let’s face it, whatever the accent, the message is pretty clear and (here’s the thing) nice and simple.
Not enough young lawyers are specialising in criminal law. They may disappear eventually from where you live.
We get the criminal justice system we invest in.
— Read on www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/criminal-defence-solicitors-facing-extinction/5065695.article
Have you read this book yet?
Yesterday I spoke with a police officer in Greater Manchester Police. This Officer had been on duty recently and had a suspect in custody with the custody clock ticking. The officer had to ring CPS Direct for a charging decision. The officer was on hold for more than four hours.
Let’s understand that four hours a bit more. Four hours sitting at a desk, chained to the phone doing nothing but waiting. There were a fair few tasks that the officer could have been spending the time doing. Like policework.
It is fair to say the officer was extremely frustrated by the situation. I said to the officer, when you finally got through to someone, did you mention how long you had been waiting. “They know,” came the reply, “it’s not the lawyers’ fault.” The officer told me that this four hour wait is not uncommon.
The CPS have had their budget slashed mercilessly over the last several years, and the number of staff has gone down and down. We get the criminal justice we invest in.
Note: CPS Direct is a national service. Though the officer was a Manchester officer, the CPS lawyer could have been anywhere in the country.
Of course, all that time the suspect was in the cell, just sitting there doing nothing but waiting. Maybe you have sympathy for the suspect, too; maybe you don’t. But it’s not how things should be done.
#thelawisbroken
Have you read this book yet ?
Followers will know that last year saw the publication of some details of the jury research I was involved in at Huddersfield University’s Psychology Department. This has been followed up by many media organisations, and yesterday saw the publication of a piece in the Huffington Post about whether the #MeToo movement might affect the Bill Cosby trial in the USA.
The article has the sub-heading ‘The Me Too movement has launched a national discussion on sexual violence. But experts are skeptical about its power inside a courtroom‘. It considers how the findings of our research might affect these issues.
Read the article here.
Overheard in the robing room:
Barrister 1: I’m representing a man at [EXCISED] Crown Court soon who has paid a contribution of £8000 to his legal aid. It’s a three-day offensive weapon trial.
Barrister 2: What! He could have got a direct access barrister for about a quarter of that.
Here endeth the lesson.
“Is it a woman Judge we’ve got?”
And the relevance is ..?
Welcome 