Coronavirus: Adapting Jury Trials In A Time Of Crisis

• Published date: 25 May 2020
• Author: Mr David Hardstaff
• Law Firm: BCL Solicitors LLP

On 24 April 2020, the Lord Chief Justice announced the establishment of a judicial working group to consider ways to re-start some jury trials once it is safe to do so. The group includes representatives from across the criminal justice system. The development comes a month after the announcement on 23 March 2020, that all new jury trials would be postponed, effectively putting a brake on almost all contested matters in the Crown Court. Since then, the work of the Crown Court has continued to build up, prompting fears that the system will be unable to cope with the volume of work when trials eventually recommence.

Despite the frequency with which problems facing the criminal justice system have been described as 'unprecedented' over the past decade, the challenge faced by the mounting backlog of cases can only be likened to operating a criminal justice system in wartime; not least because we will be paying for the disruption for years to come, as costs mount with every day that courts sit empty and prison numbers swell. The Institute for Government has estimated that if the current crisis results in a two-quarter shock to the system, the combined cost of reducing the backlog of cases across the Magistrates' Court and Crown Court could be as high as an additional '220million over two years. This is a sobering figure against the backdrop of a court service already...