Sunday, November 18, 2012

Flexitime

I had to go into court last Sunday morning to deal with a remand case that couldn't wait, for reasons that I won't go into. We routinely sit a three-JP court every Saturday, but there is also a duty Legal Adviser and a list of colleagues who are available for Sundays and Bank Holidays, including Christmas Day. Until a few years ago a single justice would take the Saturday court; it felt a bit odd at first having nobody on either side, and using the word 'I' rather than 'we'. The court's powers are limited with a single justice, who can grant or refuse bail, and issue warrants. Punishment used to be limited to a fine of one pound or one day's custody, and that could be useful for drunks and suchlike, who had already spent a night in the cells. These days it is only the DJ who sits alone, and of course he has full powers.
My friends in the pub were surprised to see me turn up in a suit  on a Sunday lunchtime, and they all wanted to know what I had been up to.

22 comments:

  1. I understand that the LA has similar powers and they are being used more and more often now. It seems your workload is being reduced not only by out of court sanctions but by HMCTS as well!

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  2. It's not just Sundays with which HMCTS is experimenting, but flexible courts as well - starting at 9am instead of 10am, running through to 6pm, which we are told will attract a generous three half-day sitting ticks. Currently it's not unusual for our busy remand courts to run through to 7pm if we haven't cleared the custody list, so not much difference there.

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    1. It is a tough old life, isn't it. Working to 7 p.m.! You should try being a doctor. And, no, we don't get paid overtime for working 9 a.m. Friday to 7 p.m. Saturday (sic). (Pace the European Working Hours Directive, one of the few directives properly ignored by the government).

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    2. Neither do JPs get paid overtime, in fact they don't get paid at all!! Would you volunteer to see your patients day in and day out for nothing save a bit of petrol money and enough to buy a sandwich? Thought not.

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    3. SLJP:

      Actually, I get paid for about 39 hours a week. So I see a lot of patients for no petrol money or sandwiches at all, to the tune of about another 50 hours extra a month.

      How many hours a month does the average JP put in, may I inquire ? And do their companies still pay them while doing it ? JPs in the NHS certainly get paid if the formers' work cuts into their NHS working hours.

      But I am not complaining. I chose and enjoy doing what I do. It is just a bit galling when people think that voluntary working until 7 p.m. is some sort of extraordinary burden. I presume that we are all doing something that we believe is for the good of the public, giving something back, and therefore should not be complaining about petrol money, sandwiches and a witching hour of 7 p.m.

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    4. The latest figures that I can find are for 2009/10, when magistrates received £11,315,387 in travel and subsistence, and the minority who claim (audited) loss of earnings claimed £7,669,836. We cannot know how many LoE claimants there were, but if you split the T & S claims between about 27,000 magistrates it comes to just over eight quid a week each.Last time I looked GPs were on north of £100,000 a year on average. So what is your point?

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    5. The point is that if occasionally working 10.00 - 19.00 becomes stumbling block for a limited commitment to charitable work, then you should chuck it in, not winge about it.

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  3. Including Christmas Day? Sounds very like -Mr Scrounge JP-.
    Is it really necessary?

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    1. I seem to remember that there never used to be court on a bank/public holiday, so anyone arrested on Christmas Eve, where Christmas day was a Saturday, faced four days in a Police Cell until Wednesday if refused Bail (five if arrested first thing on Christmas Eve!)

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    2. It used to be the case that the only days the magistrates courts would not sit in the Met Police District were Good Friday and Christmas Day. There were remand courts on other bank holidays. Magistrates Courts would rarely sit on a Sunday so if you were charged at a police station on a Saturday you stayed in till the Monday.

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  4. We have always sat two JPs on a Saturday. No trial decisions to be addressed so two is enough for a remand court.

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    1. How do you break a tie if they disagree with each other?

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    2. Probably one gets the vote with one prisoner and the other gets the other, seems fair, ahem

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  5. Routine Saturday courts represent nothing new. I recently came across a piece of paper that divulged a complete (I believe) record of my Grandfather's criminality. It consisted of a summons requiring his attendance for failing to display a working light on his motorbike. He was to attend the Magistrates' Court at 10.30 on a Saturday morning. In the event he was fined ten shillings - no small sum in 1926.

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    1. When I was a trainee (1996-8) there was a regular Saturday morning court.

      My practice is mainly in civil law but certianly for civil cases there have alsways been emergency provisions so yo could get hold of a Judge during evenings, weekends and bank holidays if you really needed one - for instace for urgent injunctions and decisons relating to children or medical questions.

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    2. Yes, I've always been used to courts on a Saturday, and indeed on Bank Holidays, but these have been occasional courts, and not those with cases planned in advance. Boxing Day was often interesting, with offences ranging from D & D to murder. Normally overnight arrests provide the bulk of the workload, which used to be much heavier in the days before the police were able to attach conditions to bail.

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  6. What a complete waste of money. Any rational analysis of the figures would indicate it is hugely costly for little benefit

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    1. Idiot on the village green19 November 2012 at 13:20

      It's not too expensive if you're the one banged up for the weekend......

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    2. I'd rather spend the money on hospitals

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    3. But you'll end up with less money to spend on your hospitals, old chap, because it will all have been wasted on police custody, which is jolly expensive - especially in comparison with the relatively low cost of a mags court...

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  7. Unless you want to keep prisoners in police cells, Saturday courts are a necessity. That aside the flexible CJS initiative is a waste of space. Neither I nor colleagues who turn up for 9 am courts get any business till after 10am. We do a mornings work then they cram in 3 trials for the afternoon - which almost certainly means one has to be stood down thereby inconveniencing witnesses etc. The reason for the cramming in of trials is that there are insufficient legal advisers to man the courts.

    Can someone explain me the efficiency and cost effectiveness of this is?

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  8. The marginal cost of custody is almost nothing. The cost is for the cells, and the staffing which has to be there whether the cells are occupied or not. Police meals are about a fiver a day (OK - nearer to six) and transport costs are the same regardless of day or time. So the cost in monetary terms of keeping someone in police custody till Monday are almost trivial. But the cost to civil liberties (and I am not a renowned libertarian) are high. Those detained by the police are innocent at that stage: they have merely been charged.

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