Recent Articles

All Change

March 21, 2012 23:38

I have migrated the blog tohttp://magistratesblog.blogspot.co.uk/and copied all of the posts across.I shall leave this one up for the foreseeable future, but I shall post to the new url, which has working comments. I shall bring the old comments across as soon as I can find the time.

Housekeeping Updated

March 21, 2012 14:39

I have no idea what has happened to the comments - JS-Kit was dumped on me when they bought out Haloscan. I have tried to get in to put it back to normal, but I haven't got time. I'll have a go when things calm down a bit.Wednesday Update: Comments are back at the new url and the posts are all...

Current Affairs

March 21, 2012 07:50

The CPS are shortly to begin their new 'paperless as far as the door of the court' document handling system. I wish them well and hope that the widely expressed fear that this will be just another Government IT fiasco proves to be groundless.The gossip grapevine tells me that local solicitors are...

Oh Dear

March 16, 2012 22:28

The Government is hinting at a new wheeze to get a grip on the unruly behaviour of the British public. This is reminiscent of the most manic and absurd days of Tony Blair. Moral panics are a regular feature of life in this nation. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that Louise Casey was...

Heavy Matters

March 16, 2012 21:02

I chaired a remand court the other day and among the cases not on our printed list was a man charged with murder. The lower court has very little to do in a murder case, other than to identify the accused, and remand him to a Crown Court in the next few days. We have long lost the power to consider...

More On The Police

March 16, 2012 20:53

I am going to risk the wrath of Murdoch by quoting from the (paywalled) Times site; for one thing, I think he has enough on his plate not to to have to bother about little me (too poor to be worth suing) and for another thing the Times listed this as one of the 40 blogs that really count, and for...

CPS Under The Microscope

March 16, 2012 20:38

HM CPS Inspectorate published a less than flattering report on the London CPS last year and have followed up with another look at it: this is the press release, and the full report is here. It is over 100 pages long so I have not read it in detail, but a quick scan suggests that CPS in-house...

Lions Led By Donkeys

March 15, 2012 07:55

There is a well known and outspoken police blogger who won't be too keen on this, I suspect.Here's an old post of mine.

Just a Thought

March 15, 2012 07:44

A further group of people have been arrested in connection with the News International scandals (and I think that the plural is now justified) including Rebekah Brooks and her husband. I have no comment to make and am happy to let the law take its course, but one thought occurs to me:- if something...

From The Grapevine

March 09, 2012 23:16

A bit of retiring room gossip tells me that a District Judge was recently rammed from behind by another car when he had the temerity to stop for an amber traffic light. The other driver yelled at the judge for stopping at a mere amber signal. So far so bad, but the guilty party must have had a...