I have just returned from a legal conference where a wide range of matters were covered, many of which are of interest to a wider audience.

After last year’s conference I told you that there was to be brought in a substantial change in the way the business in the High Court was to be handled. This arose because of the amply justified complaints about witnesses and jurors having to attend court and finding the trial was to be put off, sometimes on several occasions. This “churning” of cases caused much anger, waste of time and scarce resources and stress. Following the change in procedure, 31 cases were “churned”. In the same period last year, there were 1,000. It is expected that similar steps will be taken in jury cases in the Sheriff Court. There, though the number of cases is much higher than in the High Court, the relative degree of “churning” is much less. Any step that can be taken to reduce the problem is welcomed by all.

The vast majority of cases do not involve a jury. In such summary cases there are far too many examples of “churning”, the problem is probably greater and affects more people. It has been well said that justice delayed is justice denied. However it is the very size of the problem, which does not allow for any quick or easy answer. That does not mean it should not be tackled and a number of pilot schemes are being run now. Unfortunately I suspect that the resources are simply not available, nor can be readily made available, nor is there the political will to make them available to make a significant dent in the problem. Indeed one proposal frankly was barking mad and had little contact with the real world!

The problem of “vulnerable witnesses” not being properly able to give evidence under our current practices continues to be enthusiastically tackled but again there are restricting resource and financial difficulties to be overcome. Importantly, however, there does appear to be genuine interest in dealing with this issue.

An interesting statistic arose out of a pilot scheme monitoring the effectiveness of a new sentencing option now available, that is a drugs treatment and testing order for people who commit offences because of their drug addiction. On average before undertaking the order, the offenders were spending £490 a week on drugs. Having been on the scheme for 6 months, this dropped to £57. As most drug usage is funded by the proceeds of crime and these proceeds are usually a small fraction of the true value of goods stolen and property damaged, this change is linked directly to a significant reduction in crime. Furthermore almost half who completed the course did not commit any further crime in the following 2 years and of those who did, the majority were for minor offences. As the order is only available to drug addicts whose crime or record is so bad they would otherwise have been jailed, this too is remarkable.

Another report strongly suggests that a number of factors can significantly reduce the likelihood of reoffending. They are

1. an improvement in the ability to read, write and count
2. work experience and
3. a stable family environment.

Certainly very little effort is currently directed by the Criminal Justice system to achieving any of these, let alone them all. Perhaps it should be. Fewer crimes mean fewer victims of crime.

Finally I noted once again the ageing population of the criminal defence lawyers. I believe that a significant reason why young lawyers are not attracted to this aspect of the law is the considerably lower income that we earn when compared with other lawyers. I can accept that few members of the general public are likely to be sympathetic to our situation, that is until you need our services and find there is no-one there. In England the situation has been allowed to become almost unworkable through lack of funding. We should not ignore the real possibility of falling off the same cliff face. Perhaps the Deputy Justice Minister who spoke at the conference should listen to his own words that legal advice, assistance and representation are crucial to the operation of law and put his wallet where his mouth is. Otherwise you may end up unable to get legal assistance when you need it.