tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post3992478512380202455..comments2024-03-28T09:08:50.733+00:00Comments on Law and Lawyers: The Daily Mail asks a good question ....ObiterJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544226917595022902noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post-24102351186741392192014-01-26T11:03:24.923+00:002014-01-26T11:03:24.923+00:00Many thanks Anon for your pertinent comments. Ano...Many thanks Anon for your pertinent comments. Another possibility was to use the sentence discount to suspend the sentence. ObiterJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04544226917595022902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post-41866371746683137272014-01-26T10:21:50.161+00:002014-01-26T10:21:50.161+00:00The decision to suspend a prison sentence or not i...The decision to suspend a prison sentence or not is always a difficult one. Perhaps wrongly, what I suspects weighs heavily in the balance is the lack of previous convictions - there is I would say a strong desire in the magistracy to keep offenders out of prison and in the hands of Probation for as long as possible (now Probation is being 'transformed' that may not continue to be the case of course).<br /><br />This was a prison sentence which is highly likely to be activated if the gentleman offends in the next 12 months - and will be on his record as such. 250 hours of unpaid work is time consuming and onerous. The arrangements for compensation payment are in my opinion not fit for purpose but the lowly magistrates court can do nothing about that!<br /><br />The Mail report says injury was caused but does not say how much. Had there been any the cps would have had the option of charging as actual bodily harm. The cps guidance says:<br />[quote]As a starting point, where there is no injury or injuries which are not serious, the offence charged should generally be Common Assault. Where there is serious injury and the likely sentence is clearly more than six months' imprisonment the offence charged should generally be ABH. And where there is really serious injury the offence charged should generally be GBH.[/quote]<br /><br />That might suggest that there were no serious injuries; however, regretably there does seem to be a tendancy to undercharge offences such as these to keep them in the magistrates court where prosecution is quick and cheaper.<br /><br />Perhaps this should have gone up to the Crown Court where much higher penalties would have been available.<br /><br />I have never heard of a case in the magistrates court where guideline 5.3 and 5.4 Reduction for Guilty Plea has been applied. It feels more appropriate to the higher court.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post-37902408455561399152014-01-25T09:40:01.081+00:002014-01-25T09:40:01.081+00:00I understand some magistrates courts do have websi...I understand some magistrates courts do have websites but, even if none have, then reasons, as announced in court should be available for public scrutiny on request. I was a magistrate, now retired, I conducted many sentencing exercises and found the sentencing pro forma to be very useful. It is true that it is handwritten, but if properly used it conveys all the necessary information to explain the Justices' reasoning. When I was active I worried about the courts becoming more and more detached from the public they served; there are fewer courts and fewer court reporters. It is in everyones interest to make the courts more accessible and transparent. Cost benefit analysis? yes, but a little wider than the just cost of running a website please.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post-74361725776459097842014-01-24T17:19:42.314+00:002014-01-24T17:19:42.314+00:00Yes - no Magistrates' Court websites and I sus...Yes - no Magistrates' Court websites and I suspect that you are right in saying that they would not be resourced anyway. The Judiciary (public) website could be a possibility if there was a will to do it.ObiterJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04544226917595022902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post-59478463289330358622014-01-24T17:13:58.723+00:002014-01-24T17:13:58.723+00:00I agree with your comments and especially that abo...I agree with your comments and especially that about publishing sentencing remarks. More of them are now published by judges in the Crown Court and occasionally by District Judges in the Magistrates' Courts. For lay justice decisions we seem to just have the media as a source of in formation - limited as it is and there are fewer and fewer real crime reporters these days.ObiterJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04544226917595022902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post-64364695991293371292014-01-24T16:32:43.477+00:002014-01-24T16:32:43.477+00:00The reasons are handwritten and brief.
Magistrat...The reasons are handwritten and brief. <br /><br />Magistrates' courts do not have websites, and there are too few cases to justify the cost of creating them and having reasons transcribed onto them. A bit of cost-benefit analysis, please.Andrew Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17273362558325263161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6110794854146484721.post-63474590283613338372014-01-24T14:17:19.253+00:002014-01-24T14:17:19.253+00:00It is clear the Justices decided that the offence ...It is clear the Justices decided that the offence passed the custody threshold. Furthermore, they sentenced him to six months (the maximum available to them) less the guilty plea discount. They then went on to suspend the sentence. We do not have all the facts of the case, nor of the defendants circumstances, but on the basis of the facts we do know it does seems strange to suspend. From what we do know this offence was very serious of its type, with aggravating features. The justices will have had to give reasons in open court for their decisions. We do not know what those reasons are nor is there any way we can find out. Surely it is about time that magistrates courts started to publish reasons on their websites, or at least made them publicly available after enquiry. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com