Ministers are under pressure about planned changes to justice system that could allow people to plead guilty without ever going before a court.
Under proposals in the Judicial Review and Courts Bill, which is being debated today, people facing minor offences will be allowed to enter a plea online and have their punishment decided by a computer.
It would initially be for minor cases such travel fare dodging. But it could be extended to other situations like careless driving or failing send a child to school. These cases carry higher fines.
Ministers say the change will speed up the court system, which was facing a massive backlog even before Covid, and save £5million a year.
Critics warn that it could lead a miscarriage of justice under a “trigger happy” system in which defendants don’t have access to legal counsel.
Transform Justice founder Penelope Gibbs told the Telegraph that she was the director and founder of Transform Justice. She said that computer-savvy, overconfident people will be able incriminate themselves within seconds of going online, while others will be convicted without ever pleading guilty or not guilty. It’s a recipe that will reduce confidence in criminal justice systems.
People facing minor offenses will be able to plead online and have their punishment determined by a computer under the Judicial Review and Courts Bill currently being discussed.
Former minister David Davis attacked the plans of Justice Secretary Dominic Raab today as a clampdown on the right to judicial review.
After a series of defeats in the Government during Brexit, the Tory MP accused ministers.
Transform Justice highlighted in a report last month that online plans were first discussed in 2016, and have been criticized. The new plan’reintroduces almost exactly word for word the same online court reforms’.
It stated that “Some of these proposals have not been subjected to public consultation” and that none of them are based upon research evidence or successful piloting.
“Introducing online pleas can reduce the number of defendants with legal counsel, which will worsen the outcomes for unrepresented defendants who won’t understand the implications of indicating or pleading online.
Online pleas will reduce court processing time because they eliminate the possibility of wrong charges being identified before they reach court. It also makes it more difficult to obtain timely disclosures of evidence by defence lawyers.
Online pleas compromise open justice principles because they remove the possibility for the plea hearing to take place in person/observed.
“Children are prone pleading guilty when they are innocent or when they have a viable defense, making online plea procedures particularly inappropriate for children.”
Former minister David Davis attacked the plans of Justice Secretary Dominic Raab today as a clampdown on the right to judicial review.
After a string of defeats by the Government during Brexit, the Tory MP accused ministers.
“These are the major, shocking defeats that the government has suffered in recent times. Every day, the UK courts hear judicial review against various government arms. The state is often on the losing end of the argument,” he wrote in Guardian.
“The government plans restrict the use judicial review in an apparent attempt to avoid accountability.
‘Such efforts to consolidate power and forget that, within a society governed under the rule of the law, the government doesn’t always get its wish.