Latest Bill: Order, order

Bill Smith finds the court system guilty of being old fashioned & wants new, modern democratic justice

In the last few years MPs have been taken off their pedestal and are almost just like us now. Journalists had a go at them over their expenses, so then of course the MPs had a go back. Consequently the press were taken down a peg or two by the MPs getting the courts involved. Lord Leveson’s done well, hasn’t he?

Obviously next it’s going to be lawyers that get bitten back. Actually I’m all in favour of it. Let’s face it, “the practice of law has for centuries been a stitch-up to enrich a professional monopoly at vast public and private expense. Lawyers… know that theirs is not quite a gentleman’s calling, hence their rather desperate pomposity and self-regard. It must crack.” (The quote is from Matthew Parris in The Times).

Contempt for court
A year ago I was on a jury in Brighton. Most of the main decisions about what evidence we could hear seemed to be decided in the jury’s absence. We kept being sent off by the judge to our room while the people in wigs pontificated about what us lesser mortals were entitled to know. I was half-tempted to go and buy a wig – they’d tell me then, wouldn’t they? I’ve really no idea why the general public think of judges and barristers as old-fashioned fuddy-duddies. Also one of the jurors got a ticking-off from the judge for talking to one of the defendants in the lunch break.

The defendant had nodded to him and said, “nice day?” and the juror had nodded back and said, “yes”. What are jurors meant to do? Ignore even the smallest pleasantry and treat the defendant as if they’re guilty? Judges obviously can’t have common sense because they’re not common. Sorry, m’Lud, or Your Honour, or some other vaulted Victorian title.

There is a serious point I want to make, so silence in court. Remember the Jo Yeates case and the man who did it, Vincent Tabak? On his computer the police found lots of sadistic porn. The be-wigged debated whether this could be shown to the jury and the judge decided it couldn’t as it might influence them.

Now, sorry if I’m being stupid, but I thought that all evidence was meant to influence a jury? I mean, if Tabak had written a story on that computer about killing a girl and dumping her body on a snow-filled road, would that also have been kept from the jury? My view is that Tabak’s computer was as good as a smoking gun. I know people have other views so here’s a simple suggestion. Put absolutely everything in front of the jury and put absolutely everything on TV and stop acting like only people wearing strange clothes can decide on the big issues of guilt and innocence.

This whole court room’s out of order
The new democratic world means new democratic courts. Our courts are like some vestige of colonial rule where the lords decide and the peasants go along with it. If I’m going to decide on having a friend or business partner I want to know everything about them. I won’t hack their phones but within reason, I want to know. Surely it should be the same with the law? I don’t need some be-wigged better to tell me what I can and cannot know.

Old fashioned
It’s not as if the system was ever fool-proof. The word ‘miscarriage’ applied to justice was invented not in Russia or China, but in London. Timothy Evans hanged for Christie’s crimes (check out the great film 10 Rillington Place with Richard Attenborough), the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four and let’s get up to date, the conviction rate for rape is appallingly low.

Could it possibly have anything to do with the courts’ attitude to women? How many female judges and barristers are there? Not many, is the answer. When I was at college I considered becoming a barrister but decided not to because it was too much like an old-fashioned gentleman’s club.

For example, to train you had to go to an Inn of Court and one of the things you were expected to do was to eat dozens of dinners every year in full evening dress with your largely-male colleagues. I think they’ve got rid of that but that attitude still hangs on and it must go.

Lastly, solicitors are great. They dress normally, they talk normally and increasingly they charge realistic fees. I realise after writing this I might need mine!

Bill Smith is Managing Editor of Latest 7/Homes magazine and a director of Latest TV.