An acquaintance is currently involved in the legal system. He's attended a magistrates court and been referred to Crown. He's now attended there and pleaded not guilty. His trial is booked for many many months in the future. I'm simply curious as to why this has been so long and drawn out. In a age where there are such a backlog in the court system why was the trip to the magistrates necessary? The charges were such it was always going to get passed up the chain. Why was this even seen there? It wasn't a long process but it still took up valuable court time. He then attended Crown Court merely to enter a plea. Again this took up valuable court time. Why can this whole process so far not have been sorted via email or even registered post? I understand that the defendant gets the opportunity to plead not guilty or guilty at each stage and the earlier a guilty plea is entered the greater the reduction in sentence. I'd suggest though that is not necessary in this case - he, and many others i suspect, could have got to this stage purely in the exchange of a couple of emails or letters. My acquaintance has paid numerous hours for his legal representation for very little (if any) reason in my opinion. I know that the legal system is based on many years of tradition and experience to ensure best practice and fairness for all but this seems like it could (and should in my opinion) be streamlined somewhat in an effort to reduce the huge waiting times involved. Ian
I'm being deliberately vague on charges! (It's not me by the way, honest!) It's the whole principles thing that I'm finding slightly woolly....
IIRC there is supposedly a move towards online processing of all but the most serious of cases, in an attempt to speed up processing through the judicial system. Remains to be seen if it will ever reach fruition.
Well, I'm glad I spent all that time typing out those explanations 4 days ago, as the OP seems to have done a runner
I enjoyed to added value to the forum, my last dealings with a barrister were more formal. He told me I was fcked unless he could convince the sitting magistrate that it would be easier to allow me to plead guilty to a lesser charge. Worked though much to my relief…….
I don’t just get expert advice for free about Ducatis of all variants, but also expert information like this. Thanks @Zhed46
According to his profile he's been back on the forum a few times during the week. Perhaps he just wanted to get things off his chest rather than get an explanation?
It was extraordinarily nice of you to take so much time out to provide such a comprehensive reply; advice like that isn't usually given freely! I hope any lack of response from the OP doesn't put you off in the future - I enjoyed reading it.
