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Magistrates secret court for speeding and licence fees.
Prosecutions of speeding, TV licence fee offences and truancy must no longer
be held behind closed doors, magistrates have demanded.
In a major intervention, the Magistratesâ Association â representing Justices of
the Peace across England and Wales â has called for an overhaul of the
âsecretiveâ Single Justice Procedure (SJP) which has resulted in vulnerable
people being prosecuted behind closed doors without being present or having
any legal representation.
The Magistratesâ Association has urged the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to adopt a
12-point plan that would include opening up the SJP to accredited journalists
for the first time and greater transparency by publishing data on how many
individuals are prosecuted without being present and how many plead guilty
or make no pleas.
The move will intensify pressure on the MoJ to rethink the SJP, under which up
to 40,000 cases a month â from non-payment of television licence fees to
speeding, common assault and truancy â are decided in private, often by a
single magistrate without the defendant appearing in court.
In the past year, there have been claims of magistrates convicting and fining
defendants in less than a minute, key evidence going missing or being
overlooked and thousands of prosecutions conducted in secret.
Cases prosecuted using the SJP have included a 78-year-old with dementia
fined for not having car insurance when she was in a care home, a 33-year-old
handed a ÂŁ781 legal bill after accidentally failing to pay ÂŁ4 to the DVLA and an
85-year-old woman prosecuted for not paying car insurance after suffering a
broken neck and admission to a care home.
Magistrates âdo not get enough timeâ
The call by Magistratesâ Association follows a survey of its members which
found they were âuncomfortableâ with the way the SJP operated, felt
under-trained and a âsignificant proportionâ felt they did not âalways get as
much time as they need to properly consider each caseâ.
Mark Beattie JP, the associationâs chairman, said the principle of SJP was right
because it spared people the ordeal of court for minor offences but there were
âflawsâ in the way it operated that were harming âsome of societyâs most
vulnerable peopleâ.
âIt is clear to us that reform, as well as additional investment in training and
transparency, is needed to restore public confidence in the SJP,â he said.
Mark Beattie, head of Magistrates Association
Mark Beattie, chairman of the Magistrates Association, warned that the SJP
risked harming vulnerable people
The 12-point plan includes a new public interest check by prosecutors before
cases come to court and for the Government to âmake provision for SJP
sittings to be observable by accredited journalistsâ.
It also recommended upgraded training for magistrates, âplain Englishâ
paperwork for defendants and a right for magistrates to put a brake on
proceedings if they felt they were being rushed.
Ninety second target
A report into a pilot of the new SJP system â obtained using freedom of
information requests â revealed magistrates in some parts of London were
tested against a target time of 90 seconds to deal with each prosecution.
The associationâs call was backed by campaign groups. Penelope Gibbs,
director of Transform Justice, said: âThe secretive SJP is in urgent need of being
opened up. Public observers as well as journalists should be able to sit in court
with the magistrate, and all the case papers should be available to anyone
who requests them.
âBut the most unjust element of the SJP still remains â that most defendants
are convicted without having said whether they are guilty or not guilty. We
have the data on this non-plea rate, but we need to solve the mystery of why
so many donât participate.â
The Commons justice committee made similar demands. Sir Bob Neill, its
chairman, urged ministers to âconsider how the process could be made more
open and accessible to the media and the publicâ to ensure âjustice is seen to
be deliveredâ.
Prosecution of woman, 85, with broken neck
This month the DVLA prosecuted an 85-year-old woman from Berkhamsted,
Hertfordshire, for not paying car insurance, in an SJP case brought after she
suffered a broken neck and was admitted to a care home.
Her circumstances were fully outlined in a mitigation letter to the court from
her son, but an investigation by the Evening Standard revealed that
prosecuting bodies routinely do not see letters like this because of the speed
of the system.
The DVLA did not withdraw the case, and the pensioner was subsequently
issued with a criminal conviction by the magistrate.
The associationâs proposed new public interest check would require
prosecutors to read all mitigation letters to âgive the prosecutor the
opportunity to see and read the mitigation and to withdraw the case if they
then believe it is no longer in the public interest to pursue it.â
'Closed door' court cases
The intervention by magistrates comes after the family courts were recently
opened up amid calls for greater transparency.
Previously, journalists could attend hearings to determine the future care of
children, but the details had to be kept secret unless a judge stepped in to
allow reporting.
However, as part of an âopen justiceâ pilot at a number of courts across
England, journalists are now allowed to report cases as they happen and
access documents to understand how cases are being brought.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: âOnly uncontested and non-imprisonable
offences are dealt with under the Single Justice Procedure â magistrates are
always assisted by a legally qualified adviser, defendants can choose to go to
court if they want to, and the details of their case are published to provide
transparency.
âWe have noted the Magistratesâ Associationâs report and will carefully
consider its recommendations.â