BARRISTERS practising in courts across the North West – including the mothballed Warrington Crown Court – have met MPs to voice their opposition to the Government’s plans to reduce the number of jury trials.
They met MPs in Chester and Liverpool Crown Courts to show them around the buildings, meet court staff and talk about the proposals to remove the right to elect trial by jury in cases where the sentence may be up to three years.
Serious cases from north Warrington are currently normally held at Liverpool while from south Warrington can be held at Chester or Warrington – although the Crown Court at Warrington, while officially still open, has not sat since 2018.
Magistrates Court hearings are held in the building, however.
The meetings with MPs in Chester and Liverpool were part of the “justice needs juries” campaign.
Barristers on the Northern Circuit (the legal region covering the North West of England) have strongly opposed the Government’s plans to restrict jury trials by engaging with local MPs at Crown Courts in the region, and in Westminster. The events were organised as part of the ‘Justice needs juries’ campaign, spearheaded by barristers who argue that delays in the courts are not due to juries, but due to chronic under-investment in the system.
Andrew Thomas KC, vce chair of the Criminal Bar Association practising from Lincoln House Chambers in Manchester, and Martin Reid KC of Harrington Street Chambers in Liverpool visited Liverpool Crown Court with Kim Johnson MP (Labour, Liverpool Central).
Rebecca Filletti, (criminal barrister also at Lincoln House Chambers, attended Chester Crown Court with Samantha Dixon MP (Labour, Chester North and Neston).
Across England and Wales, around 20 MPs visited 10 Crown Courts to meet barristers. Alongside the Bar Council, which represents 18,000 barristers across England and Wales, and the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), which represents barristers specialising in crime, Northern Circuit barristers then travelled to Westminster to meet with their local MPs.
Northern Circuit Leader Samantha Hillas KC said: “The strength of feeling among barristers across the whole of the North West – and indeed the country – is clear: we oppose plans to restrict jury trials for both principled and practical reasons.
“We all want to see the backlog in the courts brought down for the sake of complainants, witnesses and defendants, as well as those working in the system. But juries did not cause the backlog and research shows that reducing them is not the answer.
“I’m proud that barristers practising in the North West have taken the time to meet with their MPs – both in the region and in London – to set out our argument that justice needs juries.”
