Counsel was known to be on his way to court, but the magistrates dismissed the case when he was late.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The magistrates should have enquired further and waited.
Mann LJ said: ‘the bench should have paused for an inquiry. They should have paused for an inquiry because they knew that counsel was on his way from London and that he was in any event going to be late. The inquiry which has suggested itself to me is an inquiry as to when counsel would have arrived had he been travelling by train. The answer to that inquiry would have been either 10 o’clock or 10.30 am. He had plainly not arrived by 10 o’clock. Thus 10.30 am was therefore the alternative event and in my judgment the bench should have waited until a reasonable time had elapsed from the arrival of that train. However, the bench made no inquiry. I understand, as I have said, what may have been a feeling of irritation, but I do not think that that affords any justification for the exercise of discretion that was in fact made. The matter should have been stood adjourned in toto to await the advent of counsel. On the information available to the bench it must have been reasonably imminent’.
Brooke J said: ‘Speaking for myself, I have great sympathy for the chairman of this bench of justices and the lay justices who were sitting with him. It appears from an affidavit by the court clerk that two cases were scheduled for hearing that day, including the case which is the subject of this application for judicial review. Both cases were listed for 10 am, both to be dealt with by way of a not guilty hearing. Counsel in the first case did not arrive until 10.40 am. The defendant in the other case did not attend until 10.50 am. I can quite well see that the justices, faced with what were in essence two contested trials during the morning, with witnesses and lawyers coming either at public expense or private expense to attend court, would have been exasperated by the late attendance of counsel instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service in the first case and I share Mann LJ’s suspicion that the reason why the lay justices behaved in the way they did was that this was probably not the first occasion on which they had been treated in this way.
However, although I have great sympathy for them, I agree with Mann LJ that justice required them to wait longer and that the relief to which he has referred ought to flow’.
Judges:
Mann LJ, Brooke J
Citations:
[1992] 2 All ER 129
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Crown Prosecution Service, Regina (on the Application of) v Portsmouth Crown Court Admn 1-May-2003
The CPS appealed against dismissal of their case by the Crown Court after no representative had appeared at court to present the case. Counsel had two cases, and had asked this to be held pending completion of the other which then overran. Counsel . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice, Magistrates
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.470923
