On 25 Mar 2020, at 13:35, John Middlehurst (via members list) <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk> wrote:
Coronavirus (COVID-19)
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If it’s a police station which used to have a virtual Court connection, reps should be made for contact over the vitual link. Does anyone know which London PSs have such a link. Brixton and Croydon certainly. Sutton, I thought so.
John Middlehurst
Consultant Solicitor
Amphlett Lissimore
Tel: 020 8771 6861
Fax: 020 8540 1636
Email: j.middlehurst@allaw.co.uk
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Branch Address: Amphlett Lissimore, 7 Approach Road, Raynes Park, SW20 8BA
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From: members@mail.lccsa.org.uk <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk> On Behalf Of Mail@harrissolicitors.org.uk
Sent: 25 March 2020 13:31
To: Julian Hayes <julian.hayes@berrislaw.co.uk>
Cc: Bruce Reid <brucerzzz@googlemail.com>; Kate Goold <K.Goold@bindmans.com>; David Holmes <David@daltonholmesgray.co.uk>; Sebah Naz Baig <naz@snbaig.com>; members@mail.lccsa.org.uk
Subject: Re: Court duty solicitor attendance
I have just finished at the police station and there are absolutely no measures in place to protect us.
Why should we as solicitors have to take a risk, are we not human and do we not have family?
I am so disappointed.
Tariq Khan
Director - Criminal Litigation
HARRIS SOLICITORS
Members of the VHCC
DX 11721 Bradford
Tel: 01274 392177
Fax: 01274 392685
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On 25 Mar 2020, at 12:51, Julian Hayes <julian.hayes@berrislaw.co.uk> wrote:
I agree Bruce. We shouldn’t even have to attend court to undertake this (and put up with the risks associated with public transport). There should be phones set up in the interview rooms in the cell area for clients to consult with the duty and other lawyers over the phone. There can then be skype hearing for all parties to attend.
The Family courts are already onto this. I will soon be embarking on a three week fact finding hearing with QC’s and juniors for 5 parties, the Judge, parents, Guardian, social services and all the other witnesses and all to be conducted remotely.
It isn’t a difficult concept to resolve for the criminal courts.
Kind Regards
Julian Hayes
Senior Partner
Tel: 020 3325 7415
Email: julian.hayes@berrislaw.co.uk
CJSM: julian.hayes@berrislaw.cjsm.net
Web: www.berrislaw.co.uk
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From: <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk> on behalf of "Bruce Reid (via members list)" <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk>
Reply to: Bruce Reid <brucerzzz@googlemail.com>
Date: Wednesday, 25 March 2020 at 12:27
To: Kate Goold <K.Goold@bindmans.com>
Cc: David Holmes <David@daltonholmesgray.co.uk>, Sebah Naz Baig <naz@snbaig.com>, "members@mail.lccsa.org.uk" <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk>
Subject: Re: Court duty solicitor attendance
Dear David and others,
Can we just forget about official guidance for once? Where has it got the Nation so far, in this mess eh? Greg's approach below is the right one. Hard to doubt his firm's commitment to representing Defendants. We should not enter an unsafe system of work, risk ourselves being infected and spread any infection further at a time when the NHS staff are on their knees. I would hate my obituary to be "He was Duty at Croydon, caught COV 19 from a shoplifter on a warrant and sadly succumbed....'
The HMCTS and LAA have never given a flying %%%% about the health and safety of us or any of the staff in the cells or the prisoners. The sanitiser debacle is but an example of this. Most if not all courts are insanitary at the best of times. Now they are dangerous. Where is the contract cleaner with disinfectant constantly doing the rounds of the door handles and communal surfaces? Could have been arranged with one email. 'Never mind, we will have an emergency meeting next week and put it on the agenda.'
They can cure half the problem by saying that no prisoners will be accepted at court. They will all be on virtual. Less movement, less contact, less risk for the Defendant. This doesn't need legislation. A duty goes into an isolated, deep cleaned room with a live links and works from there, then leaves not having been in court, the cells or any appreciable time in the public area. With a bit of bodging and Skype/zoom this could be done even more remotely in a week or so.
The emollient guff published by Mr Mcallister yesterday makes no mention of this. I would expect no less. They have had weeks to come up with something. Don't these people have any sense of forward planning?
This is distinguished management.
They short change us as a matter of policy and then coerce us with phoney references to upholding professional standards. We should stop here.
Bruce Reid
On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 11:00, Kate Goold <K.Goold@bindmans.com> wrote:
Here is the clearest guidance so far from the Chief Magistrate- but relating to extradition only:
Dear DELF members,
You may have already received this via HMCTS notifications, but I have been asked by the Administrative Court Office to circulate the arrangements for applications for immediate/urgent consideration - please see the email below. Aside from urgent applications for immediate consideration which are to be sent to the newly created inbox, any other queries which relate to extradition or crime should be sent to: Administrativecourtoffice.crimex@hmcts.x.gsi.gov.uk.
The Chief Magistrate has confirmed this morning that:
- Telephone hearings in Court 3 are proceeding successfully.
- Two duty solicitors were in court yesterday and very many thanks are due to them. There was one new case yesterday and there appears to be one new one today. She suspects that situation will continue.
- Generally, all full hearings in the next 20 days will be adjourned on application, then listed for a no parties to attend in person but appear by telephone, email or by any other means.
- The extradition judges are sitting three courts a day in WMC with court 3 being the only extradition court.
In other news:
- M&S are offering free flowers to any shoppers if any of you are attending in person to WMC.
May I suggest that members, if not already doing so, track the Coronavirus Bill to follow the amendments to Section 206 of the Extradition Act 2003, as it appears that Live Link arrangements will be extended to extradition hearings and will include an interests of justice test for decisions in this regard, which may come into effect at any time if the Bill is passed.
Kind regards,
Hannah Hinton
DELF Court Liaison Officer
On Behalf Of Administrative Court Office, General Office
Sent: 24 March 2020 17:51
Subject: Administrative Court - Applications for Immediate/Urgent Consideration (“Immediates”) * OFFICIAL *
Importance: High
Dear All
Administrative Court - Applications for Immediate/Urgent Consideration (“Immediates”)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and further to the most recent Government advice regarding social distancing, from Wednesday 25 March 2020 until further notice the Administrative Court Office will no longer accept applications for immediate or urgent consideration over the counter or by post/DX.
“Immediates” applications – i.e. situations where it is contended that irreversible action will take place if the Court does not act to prevent it, or where an expedited judicial review is required, will now only be accepted electronically, as follows:
- Applications must be filed by email to administrativecourtoffice.immediates@hmcts.x.gsi.gov.uk . This inbox will be monitored Monday to Friday between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Outside of these hours the existing out of hours procedure will apply.
- If you are a legal representative you must include a PBA number in your covering email if you have one, or alternatively an undertaking to send a cheque for the fee by post within 7 days
- If you are not legally represented, you must record in writing in your covering email that you agree to pay the court fee, or to file the relevant fee remission documentation with the Fees Office by post within 7 days. Any court order made as a result of your application will include a direction to this effect.
- Your application must be accompanied by an electronic bundle containing only those documents which it will be necessary for the court to read for the purposes of determining the application.
- In all cases where the application is filed by a legal representative the electronic bundle:
- must be a single PDF not exceeding 20mb in size;
- must be numbered in ascending order regardless of whether multiple documents have been combined together (the original page numbers of the document will be ignored and just the bundle page number will be referred to)
- Index pages and authorities must be numbered as part of the single PDF document (they are not to be skipped; they are part of the single PDF and must be numbered).
- The default display view size of all pages must always be 100%.
- Texts on all pages must be selectable to facilitate comments and highlights to be imposed on the texts
- The bookmarks must be labelled indicating what document they are referring to (it is best to have the same name or title as the actual document) and also display the relevant page numbers.
- The resolution on the electronic bundle must be reduced to about 200 to 300 dpi to prevent delays whilst scrolling from one page to another.
- The index page must be hyperlinked to the pages or documents it refers to.
Any application filed by a legal representative that does not comply with the above rules on electronic bundles may not be considered by a judge. If the application is filed by a litigant in person the electronic bundle must if at all possible, comply with the above rules. If it is not possible for a litigant in person to comply with the rules on electronic bundles, the application must include a brief explanation of the reasons for this
- If you are not legally represented and you do not have access to email, you should contact the Administrative Court Office by telephone on 020 7947 6158 (only to be used in an emergency) so that details of your application may be taken by telephone and alternative arrangements made if permitted by the Senior Legal Managers / Judge on duty.
Any other urgent queries should be sent by email to administrativecourtoffice.generaloffice@hmcts.x.gsi.gov.uk as high priority and with ‘URGENT’ in the subject line. Any such emails will be dealt with as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience at this time.
Kate Goold | Partner | Bindmans LLP
Crime, Extradition, Fraud and Regulatory
T: +44(0)20 7833 4433 | D: +44 20 7833 7820 | F: +44(0)20 7014 2076
236 Gray’s Inn Road | London | WC1X 8HB | DX 37904 King’s Cross
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From: members@mail.lccsa.org.uk <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk> On Behalf Of Sebah Naz Baig
Sent: 25 March 2020 10:32
To: David Holmes <David@daltonholmesgray.co.uk>; members@mail.lccsa.org.uk
Subject: Re: Court duty solicitor attendance
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I am based in the West Midlands and we received an update from the Birmingham Law Society yesterday which may provide some guidance for colleagues in London:
- Today, all Magistrates’ Courts across our region have closed (Coventry, Walsall, Dudley, Wolverhampton and Birmingham) for all hearings except remand hearings and prisoner production for custody time limit and/or bail application hearings.
- The CPS have asked the Police to de-warn all witnesses for trials this week.
- The Courts are in the process of adjourning all first hearings from the week commencing 23 March 2020 to the week commencing 4 May 2020, and from the week commencing 30 March 2020 to the week commencing 11 May 2020. These cases will then be subject of a case management hearing and most likely then slotted back into the Courts’ listing patters for the first appearance to take place.
- As a result of the above, there is no immediate change to the processes of West Midlands Police.
- Bail legislation is being reviewed to allow further bail than the current charge and bail/RPI to first appearance timelines.
I am told by colleagues who have done court duties that the guidance is that remand courts continue but solicitors not to attend cells. The court can be cleared and client can instruct from behind the screen, unless HMCTS announce anything different. It is only custody cases being dealt with. There appears to be no other protocol in place at this stage.
Ms Sebah Naz Baig LLB (Hons)
Duty Qualified Consultant Solicitor
SNB LEGAL
07931 359 432
Secure CJSM - naz.baig@snblegal.cjsm.net
From: "members@mail.lccsa.org.uk" <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk> on behalf of David Holmes <David@daltonholmesgray.co.uk>
Reply to: David Holmes <David@daltonholmesgray.co.uk>
Date: Wednesday, 25 March 2020 at 10:18
To: "members@mail.lccsa.org.uk" <members@mail.lccsa.org.uk>
Subject: Court duty solicitor attendance
Dear all
Does anyone know what is currently expected of us regarding court duty attendances? Bail duties are obviously irrelevant for now, but do the courts still expect us to attend for custody duties? We had an extradition duty at Westminster yesterday - we attended, the cells were quiet (for all cases, not just extradition matters), and DJ Arbuthnot was very much of the view that Solicitors should not be attending court in person, if possible - but as far as I know there's no official line on this as yet. Any views on this would be appreciated, particularly from solicitors who are are on duty at court today.
David Holmes
Dalton Holmes Gray
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