People’s Courts
I gave up being a barrister ten years ago, so I rarely read legal journals. But an article caught my eye in yesterday’s Law Times. It describes a People’s Court in Liverpool which is apparently modelled on one in the Bronx. If the report is halfway accurate, it is a very exciting initiative and a real opportunity to make an impact on crime.
A lot of people complain that Judges are out of touch, and I would agree with them. What this experiment shows, I think, is that one of the fundamental problems is that Judges are only involved in one small aspect of crime - hearing a case, establishing guilt (if a magistrate) and sentencing. Then their involvement ends. The Liverpool experiment ensures that one Judge hears the same case every time it comes back to his court; he is far more interventionist and imaginative in his approach; the proceedings are more informal; and he is part of a team, with the probation service and the Police. From the article, it seems this approach is only used for those who plead guilty, presumably to protect impartiality. But this is definitely a way forward.