The Defence Brief

A justice system Kafka would recognise When I read The Trial by Kafka and Nineteen Eighty-Four by Orwell, I took them as warnings of how a bad justice system wrecks lives of those caught up in it. Sadly, some Members of Parliament and the House of Lords seem to view the books more as a guide to how they would like our Criminal Justice System to run. Today, I read of plans to hide the names of accusers and witnesses from defendants in a large number of cases. Victims of sexual offences, such as rape, have had the right to lifelong anonymity for many years now. This means that it is a criminal offence to publish information that will lead to a complainant being identified. A Bill currently being considered by Parliament would extend that anonymity to bar defendants and their lawyers knowing the name of the person accusing them. This would apply not only in sexual offences, as has been reported in the press, but also in violent offences. The anonymity currently offered to ...

Justice A judge recently threatened to curtail the length of my examination in chief of a defendant, which I thought a little unfair since a) he was on trial so should be able to give his evidence in his own words (in this case the defendant was not a man given to succinct answers and the judge clearly hated that); and b) he had only been in the witness box for 3 minutes when she lost patience with him. I’ve heard stories of district judges and magistrates threatening to cut advocates short during questioning of witnesses but this was the first time a judge had proposed to do it in one of my cases. The basis for these threats is the Criminal Procedure Rules (CrimPR), rule 3.11(d), which allows a judge to limit: (i)                   The examination, cross-examination or re-examination of a witness; and (ii)             ...

How you give evidence is every bit as important as what you say Giving evidence can be a daunting experience for many people and even those who are used to public speaking can find the formality of a courtroom off-putting.  In this post, I hope to give you a better idea of what will happen when you go into court and how you can maximise the impact of your evidence. Procedure Whether you are a witness for the defence or prosecution the process of giving evidence is the same.  Just remember that unless you are the defendant you must wait outside the courtroom before you give your evidence unless the court has agreed you can enter the room sooner. Being sworn in First, you will be called into the courtroom by a member of the court staff who will direct you to the witness box.  You will be asked whether you have any religious beliefs.  If you do then you will be handed the appropriate religious book along with an oath for you to read.  If you are not ...

Do we make it too easy for dishonest witnesses to lie? When a matter comes for trial the procedure is for the prosecution to call their evidence and prove that the defendant is guilty of the offence(s) against him. In ye olden days, the prosecution would call witnesses who could say, “I saw X do Y” and would then use this to build the case against the defendant. The accuser would give evidence before the judge, jury and defendant – the defendant would face his accuser and the accuser would face the accused. I’ve always thought that this is a good idea – in my opinion it’s much harder to lie to the face of somebody who knows you to be a liar than it is to lie to somebody with no knowledge of the facts. Don’t believe me? Go have an affair, send your wife the photos of your liaison and then deny it to her face and see if she can see through your lies – go on, I double dare you and we all know you can’t get out of a double dare! Also, assessing a witness’s credibility...