Threat to Jury Trials: MPs Debate New Court Bill

Threat to trial by jury

March 2026

MPs voted to allow the Courts and Tribunals Bill to proceed to the next stage after significant debate during its second reading.  This was over proposals to replace juries in England and Wales with a single judge in cases where a convicted defendant would be jailed for up to three years.  Justice Secretary David Lammy says changes to jury trials and other reforms can help turn around the Crown Court backlog, which has reached record levels of 80,000 cases. These delays mean some defendants charged today may not face trial until 2030.

However more than 3,200 lawyers including 300 top barristers and retired judges have called on the government to drop the plan to abolish some jury trials.  The letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, says there is no evidence the “unpopular” plan will solve unprecedented delays in criminal courts.  The letter organised by the Bar Council, which represents all barristers in England and Wales, says the plan is an attempt “to force through an unpopular, untested and poorly evidenced change to our jury system”.

The bill will still have to clear the House of Lords before it can become law.  The right to jury trial – in which ordinary people decide on the guilt or innocence of defendants brought before Crown Courts – is a cornerstone of the constitution dating back more than 800 years.

Magna Carta did not specifically mention jury trials but does say ‘no free man shall be seized or imprisoned except through the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land’ (women are not mentioned). It did however plant the seed of juries and over time the idea became established in British law. The Statute of Westminster was passed in 1275 that required jury trials in certain cases, showing how these ideas from the Magna Carta were evolving into legal practice.

Recent governments have revealed a dislike of protest and have done a lot to introduce measures and restrictions making such protests more and more difficult. Police powers have been increased and thousands were arrested protesting on behalf of Palestine Action for example. Some juries have gone against judicial directions and have freed defendants. There must be a worry therefore that restricting the right to a jury trial leaves defendants at the mercy of judges alone who, some argue, can be reactionary,

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"Thousands of Lawyers"

But Epstein Class Labour politicians know better than all those, and they're not raging narcissists at all....nope....

Did anyone vote Labour for this to happen? Of course not.

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/mar/10/lawyers-urge-keir-starmer-rethink-plans-cut-jury-trials

#KeirStarmer #DavidLammy #JuryTrials #UKLaw #Starmer #Labour #UKPol #UKpolitics

Keir Starmer and David Lammy are taking an extraordinarily dangerous gamble with our individual liberty

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://thesecretbarrister.com/2026/03/07/keir-starmer-and-david-lammy-are-taking-an-extraordinarily-dangerous-gamble-with-our-individual-liberty/

Lammy announces expanded AI use in courts alongside plans to limit some jury trials

📰 Original title: Magistrates and judges to use more AI, says Lammy

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Usuarios: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://killbait.com/posts/post/f07c453b-d07b-4431-8d1e-8efb48349c42

#justice #judiciary #jurytrials

Lammy warns court backlog may keep rising despite reform package to ease pressure

📰 Original title: Court backlog will continue to rise even with new reforms, Lammy says

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Usuarios: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://killbait.com/posts/post/7d9f0d9b-9a5e-4c53-9da1-9373c610c218

#justice #courtbacklog #justicereform #jurytrials

Nearly a decade ago David Lammy wrote a review of the judicial system that concluded judge only trials were skewed against non-white defendants; now these findings have been used to argue that Lammy should review the danger of increasing racism in the judicial system throughout his planned reduction in jury trials..... which in fairness he had agreed to do (latterly)

Its also an index of how being in Govt. shifts one's priorities, I guess.

#politics #RuleOfLaw #JuryTrials
h/t FT

"Palestine Action protesters cleared of Elbit burglary"

Hurrah for jury trials. No wonder the government wants to take them away.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wxlv99xrjo

#PalestineAction #JuryTrials

David Lammy's plans to limit jury trials will do little to reduce the backlog in the justice system as the Institute of Government predicts that the measure will save only around 2% of time in Crown Courts.

Of course the *would* very slowly rescue the backlog but its hardly a 'silver bullet'.

Rather the key intervention would be investment to increase capacity & work to improve productivity, but that would take time & money...

#RuleOfLaw #politics #JuryTrials

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/jan/22/judge-only-trials-england-wales-crown-court-backlog-report

As (once again) having announced a proposal (for the second time a restriction on jury trials), the Govt. is looking for ways to 'soften' David Lammy's most recent version of the plan to reduce the backlog of trials by cutting back on the option for defendant to elect to have a jury... we might (again) ask:

how does the Govt., keeping finding itself in the position of having to shift position in light of opposition, that takes few outside Govt. by surprise?

#politics #JuryTrials
h/t FT