Tuesday 9 June 2015

The Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald has published the Revised General Scheme of the Criminal Procedure Bill.

A General Scheme of the Bill was published in 2014 for pre-legislative scrutiny and consultation with key stakeholders. The General Scheme has been revised in light of those consultations and the Bill will now be formally drafted.

The primary aim of this Bill is to reduce delays and increase the efficiency and fairness of the criminal trial process. The Bill will provide for new Preliminary Trial Hearings to allow for procedural arguments which arise during trials at present to be dealt with before a jury is empanelled, thereby saving time and allowing juries to focus on the facts of the case.

The Minister said “This Bill will allow courts to put an end to the situation where a jury is empanelled and then put on hold for weeks while legal arguments are heard in their absence. Preliminary Trial Hearings will allow trial courts to settle a wide range of legal issues before a jury is called. Preliminary Trial Hearings will be most useful in complex white collar crime cases where a court has to decide on the admissibility of large amounts of technical and documentary evidence.”

The scheme of the Bill deals with a number of other issues including the electronic transmission of warrants, more efficient use of videolink hearings, the provision of information to Juries and revision of the law on the reactivation of suspended sentences.

Minister Fitzgerald also stated: “More widespread use of videolink hearings will reduce the cost to the Garda Síochána and the Irish Prison Service in escorting prisoners to courthouses around the country for minor hearings.”

The Minister thanked all those in the criminal justice system who worked with the Department on refining these key changes to the law on criminal procedure. She said: “In addition to the State agencies, the members of the Irish Criminal Bar Association made a vital contribution to the development of the Bill. It will enable the courts to improve the efficiency and fairness of the trial process. It will ensure that judges have the utmost discretion to ensure the integrity and fairness of the system. The changes being introduced mark a careful evolution of the law governing the criminal trial process which ensures everyone’s constitutionally protected right to due process.”

The General Scheme is available on the Department’s website.

 

ENDS...//

Note for Editors:

Preliminary Trial Hearings

Preliminary Trial Hearings have been considered by a number of groups over the years including the Working Group on the Jurisdiction of the Courts (Fennelly Report), the Report of the Committee on Pilot Preliminary Hearings, the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women Legal Issues Sub-Committee, the Working Group to Identify and Report on Efficiencies in the Criminal Justice System, and most recently by the Expert Group On Article 13 Of The European Convention On Human Rights. While much has been, and is being, done by the Courts and practitioners to ensure the fair and efficient operation of the criminal trial process within the bounds of current legislative provisions, this proposed measure reflects the recommendations of many of the above-mentioned working groups to make statutory changes allowing for preliminary trial hearings.

Head 2 is intended to provide for the widest range of matters which a court could reasonably address in advance of the empanelling of a jury. The intention is that all contentious matters concerning the process of the trial and the evidence to be admitted will be settled before a jury is empanelled. This should result in a smooth presentation of the evidence to the jury, thus allowing them to focus on their tasks as adjudicators of fact without unnecessary interruptions for legal argument.

This Bill will facilitate the management of the trial process in a way that leaves as much discretion as possible to the judiciary to ensure that all the norms of due process and the rights of parties are respected.

These changes will be of benefit to defendants and victims in criminal cases both in terms of fairness and efficiency.

Other Reforms

Head 3 will provide further scope for the prosecution to appeal the exclusion of evidence by a trial court. This is to address circumstances where the court of trial excludes evidence which is fundamentally important to the case for the prosecution. In such circumstances, the prosecutor may be of the view that she or he cannot reasonably proceed with the prosecution in good faith, but, because the trial has not reached an acquittal (whether by the jury on the merits of the case or by direction of the judge) she or he has no avenue to appeal the ruling of the trial judge excluding the compelling evidence.

Other measures in the General Scheme will provide for increased efficiencies. The electronic transmission of warrants will, in time, allow for savings by obviating the need for prison officers and others to attend court to receive warrants in person.

There is provision for greater use of videolink hearings. This will save costs related to the escorting of prisoners to court from prison for remand hearings and other hearings prior to trial.

In line with efforts to make trials run more smoothly, greater notice will be required where the defence seeks to adduce expert evidence.

At present the “slip rule” allows for minor clerical errors or slips in the orders of a court to be corrected by the court which made the original order. In line with recommendations of Expert Group report, this head provides for a new statutory slip rule and also includes a requirement for more efficient and less expensive alternative remedies to be considered before judicial review can be sought.

Head 9 will replace various existing enactments allowing for transcripts, summaries etc. to be given to juries in trials for certain fraud, competition, and revenue offences and replace them with a single provision covering trials for all types of offences.