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The Magistrate's Blog (2005-2012)

This blog has migrated to www.magistratesblog.blogspot.co.uk This blog is anonymous, and Bystander's views are his and his alone. Where his views differ from the letter of the law, he will enforce the letter of the law because that is what he has sworn to do. If you think that you can identify a particular case from one of the posts you are wrong. Enough facts are changed to preserve the truth of the tale but to disguise its exact source.

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Location: Near London, United Kingdom

The blog is written by a retired JP, with over 30 years' experience on the Bench.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Good Call - But Sad

One of my colleagues recently bade farewell to a well-known defence lawyer, who was making his last appearance in our court. He was respected by the Bench and the staff, and was unfailingly courteous and professional.
He's off to join the CPS, and although I shall miss him, I can't blame him.
He leaves a defence-lawyer community that is under unprecedented pressure from Government policies that have created a pincer movement, one jaw of which is political and the other financial. The two and three-partner High Street firms have no future, and their partners are considering their options. Some will retire, some will merge their firms, and some will join the CPS, which offers family-friendly work conditions and, above all, a gold-plated Civil Service pension.
Tony Blair spoke frequently of 'rebalancing' the justice system. What he really meant was that he wanted to skew the rules in favour of the prosecution and away from the defence. Here's one more piece in that nasty jigsaw.

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