The Circuiteer Issue 36
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The Circuiteer News from the South Eastern Circuit Issue 36 | Spring 2013 INSIDE THE CIRCUITEER… Leader’s EbSworth Column by Sarah Forshaw QC 2 LECturE: SEC Lectures available to buy 5 GEttiNG it Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights riGht FirSt by Tareq Shrourou 10 timE Interview with Mr. Justice Singh by Fiona Jackson 12 Roberts Banks on Sentencing Developments by Barnaby Hone 16 Restaurant Review: Brixton by Tetteh Turkson 18 Bar Mess Reports 21 Editorial Committee: by the rt. hon. Lord Justice hughes 6 Ali Naseem Bajwa QC (Editor), Fiona Jackson, Tanya Robinson, Tetteh Turkson and Emily Verity The Circuiteer LEADER’S COLUMN BY SARAH FORSHAW QC I don’t tweet. I have long since There are fundamental flaws with QASA in learnt that my knee-jerk reactions its current form. They include the following: are best left un-published. That means I have a lot to say now. I would one 1. The scheme does not provide a day like the opportunity to write a light- sufficiently exacting measure of ‘quality’. hearted, up-beat Leader’s Column – at What it does is assess a minimum least before my term is over. But that day standard of competence. has not yet arrived. It is unlikely that it will. 2. ‘Plea only advocates’ are permitted under It has been a fraught seven months as QASA to represent a client charged with Leader. Timetables have been announced serious offences at a level beyond that that impact upon the publicly funded advocate’s experience, provided the lay criminal bar first and foremost. Circuiteers client pleads guilty. will, I hope, forgive me if I concentrate 3. Silks are included in the Scheme at upon them. the same level as Grade 4 advocates. Although they may call themselves ‘Grade 4 QCs’, the assessment route is exactly Sarah Forshaw QC QASA the same as for juniors. To equate Silks with the Grade 4 advocate will erode the 30.9.13 – 10.1.14 overall quality of the bar. QASA registration period Western and Midland Circuits It ought to be seen in the light of the Lord Chancellor’s speech in January of this year, I continue to gather 10.3.14 – 13.6.14 when he said ‘The question is, can we really evidence of those serious QASA registration South Eastern Circuit afford so often to use people who are paid such an additional higher rate compared cases across our Circuit 30.6.14 – 3.10.14 with somebody who’s nearly as experienced, QASA registration Northern, North who’s a seriously competent barrister, who in which the Crown Eastern and Wales Circuits. will become a QC one day if they choose to Prosecution Service have do so.’ under-instructed in order to Leaving to one side for a moment the fact save costs. PCt that the Secretary of State for Justice was apparently misinformed about the rates of April 2013 pay for Silks, what he is doing is advocating “I must add that I share the concern that the Consultation on further reforms to employing cheaper barristers for the most Crown Prosecution Service is not briefing Legal Aid, including Price Competitive serious and complex cases. The growing leading counsel when the CPS should Tendering (and sometimes disastrous) use of juniors be…. The point about Queen’s Counsel is to prosecute very serious cases is just an that the man or woman who takes silk has Autumn 2013 example of how misconceived that notion established that he or she is of the quality Tender opens in Competition areas. is. I continue to gather evidence of those to be at the very front of the profession. The serious cases across our Circuit ( a concern Autumn 2014 best counsel will do the case quickly. The I raised with the DPP as soon as I came into First contracts go ‘live’. best counsel will tell the judge what the office in September of last year) in which points are clearly and, therefore, a trial that the Crown Prosecution Service have under- might take 10 days may take seven, so we instructed in order to save costs. This policy save money there. That is what you pay for has sometimes had real consequences that that higher standard.” have the greatest effect on the victims of crime. It is also a false economy. The LCJ has unrivalled experience of the criminal justice system and has filled the On 30th January 2013, Lord Judge gave highest judicial position in the land with evidence in the House of Lords to this effect: great distinction. It is unfortunate that the 2 News from the South Eastern Circuit Secretary of State for Justice and his civil minimum grading scheme that provides the And if QASA is a means of validating PCT service team appear to pay little attention cheap advocate with a ‘competence’ badge. then it is to be resisted at all costs. For PCT to his carefully considered views based on is the real enemy for the criminal justice a lifetime in the law. We all recognise the In short – QASA will do very nicely. system. government has a right and duty to seek The Ministry of Justice will protest that economies across all publicly funded areas. Even if PCT is proposed in restricted form, quality will be an important benchmark But it would be a mistake to keep focussing it would be naïve to assume that it will not in their selection criteria. It is worth that search on an already crippled criminal have a devastating effect on the CJS. justice system. What are we to do about it? The easy answer Is there any connection between QASA and The Bar has nothing to fear is for quality practitioners to diversify or to PCT? At the time of writing, we do not know focus solely on privately paid criminal cases the shape of the proposal for PCT. What I do from an assessment scheme for those able to afford their services. To believe is this: Price Competitive Tendering is that truly weeds out the turn their backs on publicly funded crime likely to signal the end of the publicly funded and guard their own bank balances while independent referral Bar. It will dismantle poor advocates. But should our criminal justice system is dismantled. It overnight a Criminal Justice System that had we voluntarily register for a would lead to a two-tier system of justice. shaped itself over hundreds of years into a The most vulnerable in our society will system attracting international acclaim. The QASA Scheme that does not have to rely on the new breed of work-a- aim of the Government is to save as much genuinely promote quality day advocate. The wealthy will be properly money as possible and those tendering will represented. That is not a legacy I am bid at the lowest level that they feel they can. and is not in the public prepared to leave behind when, in ten years’ Their aim will then be to make the maximum interest? No. time, we are asked what we did to fight for a profit. The advocate, once selected by an system that has worked so well. instructing solicitor for quality amid fierce peer competition for a case that paid the thE GooD NEwS same regardless, will be replaced by the remembering their last disastrous foray advocate who simply charges himself out into contracting in the justice system. The The right thing to do is to take a stand – a for the least money. The judiciary would no department was repeatedly warned that the unified stand. And, amidst the anger and longer be able to rely on the integrity and quality of services would be sacrificed when the frustration that currently permeates the independence of the advocate appearing in it outsourced the contract for providing Bar, there is some good news. It is this: we front of them. Inevitably standards will be court interpreters to ALS. It ignored those have never been so unified. Different Leaders lowered. Miscarriages of justice will follow. warnings and pressed ahead regardless. If at the Bar may take different approaches The appeal and re-trial rate will soar. So those in government were prepared to carry but we all share the same goal. No staged too will the true cost. As Lord Hughes put out a proper audit, they would find that introduction of measures that we all know it in his excellent Ebsworth lecture hosted that contract, which they boasted would are wrong should be permitted to interfere by our Circuit: “And, because it is no good save money, has not done so in practice and with that unity across all Circuits. There is an forgetting that money is in very short supply has caused countless interruptions to the old Kenyan saying: “Sticks in a bundle are and that there is no natural right to a dole- running of the courts. unbreakable.” Adversity breeds cohesion. out from the taxpayer’s limited funds, it is And with cohesion comes strength. I sense The Bar has nothing to fear from an essential to understand that good advocates that the collegiate mentality of the Bar is at assessment scheme that truly weeds out the save money. A bad advocate costs a huge the highest point ever. poor advocates. But should we voluntarily amount; trials take too long, and things go register for a QASA Scheme that does not There have been some highs over the winter. wrong which require appeals to people like genuinely promote quality and is not in The Ebsworth Lecture, ‘Getting it Right First me (not one but 3 of us) to put right.” the public interest? No.