Download - Justice wide open - communities and courts
• William Perrin TAL
Communities and the courts, what’s going on? a practitioner perspectiveJustice Wide Open 29 February 2012
William [email protected]@willperrin
Talk About Local Ltdhttp://talkaboutlocal.org
Abandoned cars and weekly arsonBingfield Park, Rufford Street 2002 Pics – Mark Bailey
www.kingscrossenvironment.comOver 1500 articlesSix volunteer writers – aged up to 65Campaigns, information, wildlife, events etcStrongly pro community/placeImportant part of wider regeneration 400-500 readers a day
Crime and confidence in justice system major local issue
Highbury Corner busy very local magistrates court
Impossible for a regular citizen to find out what is happening at the court without going there – both the daily listings and the results of justice
Obviously, if you have a day job you can’t keep going there
It’s 2012 – why aren’t listings and results online?
Can journalists readily and reliably get this basic information?
Professional court reporters cite Kafkaesque tales of dysfunctional bureaucracy.
‘There is a widespread view among many court staff that details like defendants’ names, addresses and dates of birth are confidential pieces of information. ‘
-Locked metal boxes- Lists confiscated-Lists only have minority of cases- Lists appearing at end of day concerned not start
Administrative statement by the Chief Presiding Judge and Secretary of State. To give individuals administrative ‘rights’ that they can enforce with court officers
Three simple things:
Forward listings – what’s happening when, charges, published in timely manner
Participant details - names etc of all lawyers, judges, magistrates, victims, witnesses
Results – guilty, not guilty etc
Two principles
Respect all conventions of protection of vulnerable people and contempt
Subject to protection, everything published online to the world, not just the media
Courts Transparency Charter
http://tal.me.uk/c3
Head on collision between uncodified tradition of open justice and badly codified, badly implemented data protection, copyright,
privacy