In an interview with The Mirror, Law Society President Richard Atkinson said the system needs to be considered as a vital public service like the NHS or education
The justice system is on the brink of “collapse” despite being a “cornerstone of our country”, the President of the Law Society has said.
In an interview with The Mirror, Richard Atkinson said the system needs to be considered as a vital public service like the NHS or education. He said major plans to overhaul sentencing and allow more offenders to be punished outside of jail should help fix the prisons crisis but warned this was only one part of a system on its knees.
Mr Atkinson said: “Like the NHS, like education, justice is a public service. It serves the public in delivering justice, which is a cornerstone of our country. It is part of our national character and it hasn’t been spoken of in those terms because it hasn’t suited politicians to talk in that way.
“We have the elements of prisons, of courts, of legal aid, but they are all part of the public service that is the justice system, and each one is necessary.”
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He explained that nobody would think the NHS was in a good place if there were enough doctors, but hospitals were falling down, as they understood all parts were necessary. “We’ve got to have it all and that’s where we are with justice,” he added.
Mr Atkinson said a shortage of lawyers, dire delays for trials and crumbling courts could cause a “collapse of the system”, if a significant funding injection is not given soon.
Last week a major sentencing review called for judges to be given more flexibility to tailor punishments for individual offenders, for example giving out a football ban instead of a fine. But Mr Atkinson said more than 50% of people facing custodial sentences aren’t being legally represented in magistrates’ courts, where lower level crimes are heard.
“Now that’s really serious anyway, but if you’re going to have more complex sentencing that requires greater understanding of the offender, it’s even more important that those individuals are represented,” he said.
The Law Society chief called for an independent pay review body for legal aid to stop lawyers leaving in their droves. Legal aid ensures people can get a government-funded lawyer when they are accused of a crime, while pay review bodies provide advice to ministers on pay rises for public sector workers, such as prison and police officers, NHS staff and teachers.
Solicitors are paid far more in the private sector, which has caused a catastrophic legal staffing crisis from end-to-end in the justice system.
Mr Atkinson said courts rooms are often empty because there simply are not enough legal advisers to staff them. And he said the lack of duty solicitors available at police stations means delays are bedded in on day one.
Victims of domestic abuse and rape are finding out that suspects are being temporarily released because a solicitor is not available to represent the accused in police interviews. This causes delays in the first stage of a case, which has a major knock on effect.
Mr Atkinson added that last week’s revelations that hackers may have accessed a “significant amount” of private information at the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) was another sign that the system is screaming out for funding and reform.
“The LAA system was antiquated and it was recognised as such. It needed investment, and we called for it, and it didn’t happen. I hope that this will be a wake up call,” he said.
And on the rest of the court’s system, he said: “The buildings are literally falling down. We have a backlog of building repairs of £1.3billion. That means that we are losing trial days because the heating is packed up.
“We’ve had an example where an air conditioning unit fell where a lawyer was sitting. They just got out of the way fortunately. I’ve seen jurors sitting in hats and scarves because the heating isn’t working.”
A major review into the courts is also due to be published later this Spring. More than 70,000 cases are waiting to be heard in the crown courts, with trial dates sometimes set as far as four years down the line.
While the criminal defence lawyer said urgent action is needed, he raised the alarm over the review being expected to call for some accused offenders to lose their automatic right to a jury trial. Currently offenders who are likely to be serving shorter sentences are tried by a magistrate, without a jury.
Plans for new “intermediate courts” would increase the amount of offenders, who are likely to get longer sentences for more serious offences, allowed to be tried without a jury.
Mr Atkinson raised grave concerns about future politicians increasing the length of sentences allowed to be tried without juries to save money. “What if we move it to life imprisonment sentences? Where is the barrier? It’s so important that there are clear lines set right now, if the conclusion is reached that this is the way forward,” he said.
He also emphasised that this change was not being suggested because jury trials were no longer considered “gold standard” but because the courts backlog needed urgent action. “Unquestionably, we’ve got to address the backlogs which are growing. But it has to be evidence-based,” he said.
“Just doing something and hoping or thinking it’s a matter of common sense that it will deliver the reduction in backlogs isn’t good enough.”
The highly respected lawyer said he has been told by past politicians that the public “doesn’t really care about justice”. “That’s nonsense, and we know it’s nonsense because we’ve got a test case: The Post Office,” he said.
“Do people care about the miscarriage of justice to the sub Post Office mistresses and masters. Yes, they do. They’re outraged by it.
“A million of them signed a petition for the chief executive to have her CBE stripped from her. They made a television programme about it. People really care, and if you take away the fundamental bedrock of our justice system, people will care.
“And at the moment, I see no reason for it to change, people trust the jury system, and the jury system delivers the right verdict in an overwhelming majority of cases.”
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