Read on Twitter
The problems with "the courts are COVID secure" as an argument, a thread... @TheCriminalBar
1. It's nonsense. Try having a conference in the tiny, airless rooms in the custody suites. Most rooms aren't big enough even if everyone in them is trying to secure distance 1/10
1. It's nonsense. Try having a conference in the tiny, airless rooms in the custody suites. Most rooms aren't big enough even if everyone in them is trying to secure distance 1/10
2. Better yet try having a conference with a client on bail. Normally this involves finding a corner of the building and having a whispered conversation. That's because every "conference room" is locked, has been repurposed or is "reserved" often for a trial that isn't current 2/
...the makeshift solution is hard to replicate from two meters away in masks. Imagine having to give instructions about embarrassing sexual encounters, or mental illness, or the breakdown of your marriage by shouting in a room of strangers 3/
But let's assume it is true and the courts are totally safe once you get in. How did you get there? In London and the South East at least, the answer is almost certainly public transport and that is nothing like "COVID-secure" 4/
And most barristers appear in many different courts each week, so we do not have straightforward commutes. We did not move close to the court we appear in, because that could be 20+ courts across London. That is multiple trains and busses each day 5/
Requiring someone to attend court because the court building is COVID-secure is like requiring someone to have a chat in your submarine because it has plenty of air in it. if it is 3-miles down, no-one is swimming there safely @HMCTSgovuk @CEOofHMCTS 6/
We have a perfectly good (OK, passably good) digital system. Use it! we can do so many hearings remotely and SHOULD be in a lockdown which requires people to minimise travel. Just because it is legal to travel to court to work does not mean it is a good idea 7/
There needs to be leadership from the courts now. Not desperately trying to combat extending waiting lists. Those extended because the government has systemically ripped as much funding out of the criminal justice system as possible. COVID is not the cause 8/
Get the hundreds of straightforward, short administrative hearings happening across London everyday onto the video link. If attendance is really necessary at trials (and for my part, I think it is), limit the use of the courts to those and those alone 9/
The response to COVID is just the latest in a long line of decisions which appears to treat barristers (and I recognise the similar impacts on court staff, witnesses, police and indeed defendants some of whom are, y'know NOT GUILTY) with contempt and as disposable 10/ ENDS
