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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.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Workload Drops - No Surprise

Magistrates across the country are reporting a big drop in the number of cases coming through the courts. I took our remand court the other day and we were done at 1 p.m., something that was unheard of a few years back. This probably suits the MoJ agenda to reduce the number of courts, and is likely to be caused by the huge increase in behind-closed-doors 'justice' doled out by police and CPS.
We issued a warrant the other day for a man who had not complied fully with his Conditional Caution. The offence was ABH, and the conditions were to pay a small amount of compensation, to write a letter of apology (for God's sake!) and to attend a single alcohol counselling session. ABH is an either-way offence that carries up to six months inside or a £5000 fine before a magistrates' court, or a lot more in front of a judge and jury. That's not justice, it's a travesty.

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