Lammy's partial retreat on jury curbs fails to impress lawyers

Lord chancellor David Lammy has scaled back on axing jury trials for all but the most serious cases – but his plan to cut the Crown court backlog has failed to appease critics.

To tackle what he declared a ‘courts emergency’, Lammy announced a ‘bold blueprint’ to turn the tide on the rising backlog as recommended by Sir Brian Leveson's independent review. However, while Leveson recommended a new tier of court in which certain cases would be heard by a judge flanked by two magistrates, Lammy’s ‘swift courts’ will have judges sitting alone.

Neil Blundell, vice-chair of the City of London Law Society’s committee on corporate crime and corruption, said serious and complex fraud cases account for only a very small proportion of Crown court work and when properly managed, can be easily catered for in the jury system.

‘Removing juries in such cases would not resolve systemic pressures and would instead create new burdens for courts and judges including the need for detailed reasoning on verdicts which will add to the administrative burden for judges,’ Blundell said.