Wrong

While I was away there was an incident in which a magistrate who was unhappy to see a lady in a full veil before the court walked off the bench. Thereafter the media picked up the case.
The veil is a sensitive issue, and one that needs to be treated with thought and care, and with due regard to judicial obligations. The magistrate concerned is entitled to be concerned about the veil, but in my view he was quite wrong to walk out as he did. Magistrates' training ephasises that any concern felt by a magistrate in court should be referred discreetly to the chairman, and, if necessary, discussed outside with the legal adviser. Grandiose public gestures are not compatible with the office of Justice of the Peace.

Standards R Us

The latest issue of The Magistrate has just thudded (okay, flopped) onto the doormat at Bystander Towers. Virginia Burton JP has written about her chairmanship training, and she writes, sensibly:

There needs to be a debate...on accepted standards in respect of:
Hands in Pockets
Wearing Baseball Caps
Mobile Phones
Wearing Sunglasses
Bare Midriffs
Bare Shoulders
Deep Cleavages
Shirts or trousers showing thongs/bottom cleavages or very short skirts
Clothes or head coverings allowable in court for people of various faiths

Well asked, Virginia, but surely that's enough about the lawyers? What about their clients?
Seriously though...I know exactly what my court chairman view is on all of that lot. For what it's worth it's

no,
no,
off,
no,
depends,
depends,
only on women,
really depends,
and finally, I have already blogged that one

I am sorry for the cheap gibe about lawyers, but I had to pre-empt Rogerborg.

Now That's Real Community Justice

As I sat watching the rain lashing down on my recent break, a pile of books and a glass of wine to hand, I had a sudden flash of inspiration about the forthcoming 'roll-out' (ugh!) of Community Justice and CJSSS (Criminal Justice Simple Speedy and Summary) two ideas that carry a powerful whiff of the Downing Street sofa.
I had been reading a little history, and I suddenly made the connection between age-old tradition and practice and what we are trying to achieve in the courts, egged on by MoJ.

Simple. Speedy. Summary. Involvement of the community in deciding and carrying out justice. How to 'deliver' these objectives? Of course - it's a lynching!

If offenders were seized by the mob and strung up or beaten to death there and then, there would be strong and visible deterrence, a huge saving on court and prison costs, and a fabulous opportunity to flog our camera-phone footage to low-rent TV channels.

I'm in court tomorrow. I shall put the suggestion to my Bench chairman if I see him.

I could be famous if this catches on.

Prison Crisis Not Cured -Only Postponed

Jack Straw has acknowledged that the early-release programme announced a few weeks ago is no more than a temporary respite. There will be more trouble to come.

The Dog That Didn't Bark In The Night

Don't tell anyone that I told you, but I was quietly encouraged by Gordon Brown's 'Not The Queen's Speech' yesterday. It wasn't what he said, but rather the fact that he showcased his housing proposals and left the latest Criminal Justice proposals buried in the middle of his speech. Under Blair the Government's determination not to be outflanked on law'n'order was always apparent, and resulted in a lot of reforms that were at best useless and at worst damaging.
However, the loss of the Suspended Sentence for summary offences will greatly hamper our efforts to deal with offences such as high-level and repeated drink driving, Common Assault (and that's what nearly all domestic violence is charged as) Driving While Disqualified (and that's an offence that is often repeated) Taking a Vehicle (again an offence that is often repeated, thus making a deterrent very useful) Vehicle Interference and others. So while Government policy will continue to lock up thousands of offenders on indeterminate sentences, sometimes for lack of staff to assess them for release, magistrates will lose one of their most useful tools to enforce orders and deter reoffending.
I hope that Brown will not inherit his predecessor's love of the headline-grabbing quick fix. If the courts are given a rest from new legislation for a year or two we may get a chance to make some sense of CJSSS and Community Justice, two worthwhile ideas that will take a lot of hard work and a bit of luck if they are not to fail.

Apocrypha (21)

Many years ago I had a good friend, now sadly deceased, who was a senior Met detective. Standing at the bar, as we were wont to do, I spotted the head of a pin peeping from behind the lapel of his jacket. "That's not like you, Harry" I said. "I don't see you as the kind of bloke who saves a pin in his lapel". Wordlessly, Harry turned over his lapels, each of which had a dozen or so pins threaded into the fabric. "If some hero wants to give me a Glasgow kiss" he said, "He will grab my lapels and pull. If he gets two handfuls of pins he will pause for long enough for me to knee him in the balls". There's no substitute for experience is there?

Another useful tip I received via the Met CID is that a bar stool is an ideal tool with which to fend off a man with a knife, since its legs will be longer than his arms. Mind how you go now.

An Alien Speaks

Channel 4 Radio is a newly licenced digital channel. I recorded a piece for them last year, and it is now on their site here. It's Programme 6, entitled A Magistrate. To protect my anonymity they have distorted my voice so I sound like one of the nasties out of an old episode of Dr Who. The piece by a barrister is interesting too- give it a go if you have time.

(edit - 15th July)
Roland White in the Sunday Times is not a fan:

The first show I clicked on was Secret Confessions of a Magistrate, which was like a Justice of the Peace’s after-dinner talk with music playing in the background. It sounded like the soundtrack of a recruiting video for the Magistrates’ Association. There were a couple of courtroom jokes – how the bench got the better of an expensive QC and the amusing local drunk who described the court as “a tabernacle of mercy”. It was interesting in its way, but hardly at the cutting edge of broadcasting, which is where Channel 4 (home of Bus Pass Boob Jobs) likes to see itself.

The whole piece is here.

A Knotty Problem

Jeremy Paxman has been wondering aloud about the future of the tie (necktie to you in the USA) on the telly. It seems to me that there has been a rapid and accelerating decline in the wearing of ties, both on the television and in a business setting. I sometimes take the train to London and it is not unusual for me to be one of the few men in business dress to be wearing a scrap of gaily-coloured silk at my throat. Police officers rarely wear ties these days, which is understandable when they are wearing anti-stab vests but otherwise, in my view, unprofessional-looking. Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis as the man said, but what will happen in court? Robed judges and counsel wear bands, DJs and magistrates of the male persuasion wear jacket and tie, as do solicitors and court staff. In a few years' time, as Paxo suggests, the tie may well appear to be an anachronism, as strange in its way as the barrister's wig is now. For myself I shall continue to wear a tie on the bench and on official business whatever happens in the world of fashion, because I believe strongly that formality of dress and behaviour is essential to maintain respect, and thus order, in the courtroom. One of my younger colleagues was grumbling about the jacket-and-tie rule recently, but he had no answer when I asked him if his confidence in the flight crew taking him on holiday would be improved by the Captain and First Officer wearing jeans T-shirts and trainers on the flight deck. In any emergency a uniform gives us someone to turn to for help and advice, as most of us will have experienced.

From The Inbox

The Balanced Scorecard is the principle planning tool used by HMCS. It aims to ensure that business objectives address four key quadrants and achieve a balanced focus across different aspects of its business.
The ..... Regional Plan uses this approach to ensure that all its business activities are aligned to contribute to one or more of the key dimensions. Many initiatives and activities will contribute to achieving the objectives within more than one quadrant but have been placed in the quadrant for which successful implementation will deliver most benefits.

Does anyone have a clue what this stuff, written by highly paid professional managers in Her Majesty's Courts' Service means?
(And shouldn't that 'principle' be 'principal'?)

Now Where Was I?

I have just fired up the PC to find the thick end of a thousand emails, blog comments, and suchlike. It will be a few days before I get near to dealing with that lot, but I have indulged myself with a ten-minute frenzy of deleting spam emails.
What a time to choose for a break. Like an idiot I chose Glastonbury and Wimbledon time - what better guarantee could there be of rain? That's what we got all right - every single day. And what about the news? New PM, new (well, retreaded) Ministers, bombs, floods, a new justice Act (Oh goody!) and as I predicted, the end of suspended sentences for summary offences such as drink driving, drive disqualified and the rest.
Just a thought before I go and do something important:- I have complained time and again over the Government's habit of passing new (and usually useless) laws every time that something alarms the tabloids. Now we have a serious, albeit bungled, attempt to blow up a lot of people and what do we read? The first man to be charged has been charged under the 1883 Explosive Substances Act. I rest my case.