The country’s top judge will look at taking away trial by jury for some offences in an attempt to reduce case backlogs in the crown courts.
Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, the lady chief justice, said that “medium to long-term scrutiny of the criminal justice system” was required to deal with the 66,500 cases that were stacked up in the courts that heard the most serious offences in England and Wales.
However, her comments drew a strong reaction from criminal law barristers who said that Carr’s proposals were tantamount to “undermining the cornerstones of 800 years of a tried-and-tested justice system”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Law in Action on Tuesday, the country’s most senior judge said that consideration should be given to “recalibrating” what were
