The Gazette 1974

that there be some reasonable time space between * lt ' tings, so as to enable the County Registrar's office to carO out efficiently all of the many other duties impos^ upon it, which must be left in abeyance while a Cour is in session. Criminal Trials The recommendations in relation to criminal work 11 the Circuit Court has been opposed in almost all ai% 5 through the country as being unnecessary, inipractic 3 and almost unworkable. Jurors The recommendation is that criminal trials should held only in large centres where a pool of Jurors wow be readily available within a radius of fifteen m»®" This recommendation is intended to reduce the ha® ship caused by calling Jurors from outlying areas, th®- requiring considerable travel on their part. It has bee® the experience of the profession through the c o u n t ry which experience will, it is believed, be confirmed the County Registrars in most Counties, that there is real problem in finding Jurors to attend the Cir cU Criminal Court, nor any basic objection by Jurors t( J attending or giving Jury service, save and except tn& the people called to serve on juries are not in any compensated for the financial loss which they incur giving this service and by reason of their being a** 3 / from their business affairs for a day or more. If recommendation achieved an easing of the problem jurors, that easing must be weighed against the proble® 1 ^ financial or otherwise which will be created for accu 5e parties, their witnesses, state witnesses and their advise^ in being obliged to attend at venues which are clear very considerable distances from their homes, should be adequately and fully remunerated for w service which they are called upon to perform. In m° areas there are sufficient jurors on the list to ens® rC that a person will not be called for jury service m 0 ^ often than once in approximately five years. suggested changes in the jury panel will cause cha° and there does not appear to be any necessity at prese® for increasing the number of people who should obliged to give jury service. Venue for Hearing While, as pointed out in recommendation 133, ^ present position is rather rigid in that an accused m uil be returned for trial to a venue which may not have sitting for quite some time after the date of the return- nonetheless, this problem could be overcome quite eas®- by a District Justice being empowered to return 3 person for trial to some venue other than that to whi® he should normally be returned provided the accus e person so consents. Most accused persons returned f° r trial are very anxious to have a reasonable time elap* e f between the date of the return for trial and the date 0 trial. Time is required for the purpose of con s i de r^ an accused's defence and an accused may wish to h a * e time to make arrangements in relation to his busines* should it appear from the evidence, that there is 3 probability of conviction. In the majority of cases accused returned for trial will opt for a reasonable sp aCf of time between his return and trial rather than seek 3 shortening of that period. If a District Justice v^- obliged to return a person to the next "conveni eIlt venue" of the Criminal Circuit Court, as is recofl 1 ' mended, this would result in many difficulties and 1,1 158

ional venue, rather than having a large turnover of cases at a larger and more distant venue. Pool of Judges In paragraphs 126, 128 and 130 it is suggested that a pool of Judges for the entire country would leave flexibility in making Judges available to deal with extra work in any given area. Again the problem of part heard cases, of cases being adjourned for other reasons as referred to above and the interruption in the ordinary flow of work which now exists where a specific Judge deals with a specific area, would far outweigh any advantage which might be gained. It is not accepted that a Solicitor would have any partial or real difficulty in advising his client without knowing which particular Judge would be assigned to deal with a sitting and without knowing that parti- cular Judge's outlook. These are not matters of any importance in achieving the objective named. What is important is the fact that where a Judge is assigned to a particular Circuit, it is possible to operate a system which is to the public's advantage in that a County Registrar can reasonably accurately assess with the co-operation of local practitioners, how long particular cases may take and thus list cases for hearing on specific dates. The Judge may often feel inclined to sit later than usual to complete a case to convenience witnesses. The system must also suit the Judge in his own personal arrangements. It is difficult to understand how the reassignment of Judges from time to time, to different Circuits, would bring a more uniform judi- cial approach. A Judge always feels responsible for his particular Circuit and in a short time becomes aware of the particular problems in his area, the state of crime and is thus generally in a better position to know what the requirements of his area are from the point of view of penalty. A common crime in one area may not exist or may not be as prevalent in another area. Meetings and discussions between the Judges on the question of penalties and crime generally would, it is believed, bring about more uniformity of approach. The recommendation in paragraph 131 that each Cir- cuit would have one Judge assigned for a stated period and that a second Judge might be temporarily or per- manently assigned depending on whether the volume of business might warrant does not appear to be necessary. The Society suggest that one Judge should be assigned permanently or for a suitable long period to each Cir- cuit as the system now operates and that in addition, and if necessary and if and when required, two or more further Judges should be appointed on a temporary basis, the additional appointees to carry out temporary duty in the area where work has fallen into arrears. If one Circuit should become completely overloaded then it would be more desirable to remove from that Circuit some of the work and add it to an adjoining Circuit which could accommodate the extra work. This has already been achieved within the past few years. The suggestion that where necessary two Judges should be appointed to a country Circuit following each other through the various Courts in the Circuit, would, it is believed, create difficulties for the County Registrar's office, unless his office is fully and properly staffed with additional staff. At present the Circuit Court sittings in country areas occur on average four times during the year. During the sitting of the Circuit Court, the other work of the County Registrar's office and the time of local practitioners, is fully occu- pied by the Court during the sitting. It is essential