Ella Sides

Barrister at Bank House Chambers-🦉-All views are my own

[Law Society Gazette @lawsocgazette]

MoJ reveals £1.5m cashpot to fund criminal bar pupillages:

https://t.co/UjVfybz6l5

[Rebecca Paul MP @Rebecca_SPaul]

My favourite moment from yesterday.

@NECircuitleader giving the Minister a reality check on Labour’s nonsensical plans to limit jury trials to address the backlog.

[Ella Sides @EllaSides1]

Watched in true awe- a fantastic speech.

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

This from @Geoffrey_Cox was titanic - a truly beautiful speech.

He outshone those sat opposite. They could only watch. And nervously laugh.

This should be seen by every new MP to understand what they do, & every new barrister to understand what we do.

[Stephen Davies @sdavieslaw]

This is the most damning aspect of today’s debate on the curtailment of jury trials

For a Justice Minister to admit that the policy proposal is being advanced A) regardless of the crisis and B) without an impact assessment in the public domain is extraordinary

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

@sarahsackman I ask this with a genuine curiosity and sadness because I consider you to be a solid public official, a great benefit to the office you hold and a strong advocate.

But if this is ‘ideological’, Sarah, then did your ideology … change?

Because this was you in June of 2021 👇🏼

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

@DavidLammy This is disingenuous. There is no evidence at all that removing the right to jury trial will make any meaningful dent in the backlog.

Also, “victims first” is petty politicking that should be beneath you. Justice means justice for all. Not every accused person is guilty.

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

This government has not taken a single step to tackle the causes of the horrendous inefficiencies in the criminal justice system, instead rushing to dismantle trial by jury.

Legal professionals have offered many alternatives to address the backlog.

Ministers are not listening.

[Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky]

Outstanding

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

I’d like to once again congratulate the criminal justice system on prosecuting and solving every single crime in the entire universe such that they could turn their attention to prosecuting this 81 year old with his walking frame. Well done everyone. Keep up the marvellous work.

[Ella Sides @EllaSides1]

Very pleased to announce yesterday I accepted an offer of a Common Law pupillage at Bank House Chambers. I am over the moon. Still cannot quite believe it and I am still very much on cloud nine.
Thank you to everyone that has helped me and supported me in my pursuit to the bar!

[Joseph Timan @josephtiman]

The man in the automated message on the Manchester Civil Justice Centre phone number genuinely sounds unhinged. It only gets worse the longer you listen. Just wait for the bit about bailiffs. Who approved this???

[Scott Bryan @scottygb]

No notes #GavinandStacey https://t.co/Ntv1aM68cz

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

CORRECTION
Never been worse
Snaresbrook
largest Crown Court in England & Wales
Today
HALF SHUT
9 of 20 available Crown Court rooms

Slow justice=No justice

Government stops judges + criminal barristers being able to work

Victims of crime and accused told trials won’t happen

[alan b. @inceptstellar]

i love their friendship

[John Donoghue @JohnDonoghue64]

Quiet please… Lemon Raspberry Loaf is sleeping

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

CBA Chair's Message, Mary Prior KC
The 2,400 criminal barristers who remain within the criminal justice system provide an essential public service. These skilled and talented barristers prosecute and defend the most serious crimes across England and Wales. We have lost 47% of practitioners with 8-12 years experience and the reduction in our numbers will continue without substantial and long-term investment into the criminal barristers who are the engine room of the criminal justice system. Those that remain are working flat out to try to make a difference. Despite that, there were 1,436 criminal cases in 2023 in which could not go ahead on the day that they were due to start because there was no prosecution or no defence advocate or sometimes both. Without significant input into retention and recruitment, this will only get worse.

After two decades of chronic cuts to the whole of the criminal justice system from the police right through to the prisons, the new Government has to act. The CBA respects and applauds the decision of the new Government to appoint an Attorney-General, a Lord Chancellor and a Secretary of State for Justice who are highly able legal professionals. We look forward to working with them and with Heidi Alexander MP, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice, and we appreciate her public acknowledgement of our work during the recent riots. We stand ready to work collaboratively with all agencies to repair our vandalised and dysfunctional criminal justice system. This will not be a short process but in good time, our collective effort can return our justice system to the status of the finest in the world.

Whether the flight from the Criminal Bar is tempered or reversed will depend on whether the Government implements the recommendations of the Independent Review Bodies set up by the previous government to consider Review into Criminal Legal Aid published in 2021. We cooperated with and waited patiently for the final report of the Bellamy Report. The previous administration ignored many of its independent conclusions including those around renumeration and the structural reform of fees for far too long to everyone’s cost.

The recommendations of the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, skilfully led by HHJ Deborah Taylor, are due shortly. We have demonstrated our respect for the criminal justice system by working tirelessly to try to reduce the backlog in the Crown Courts and by collaborating with Lord Justice Edis in his efforts in 2024 to conclude all rape cases which had been waiting for trial for over two years from first hearing in the Crown Court.

[The Bar Council @thebarcouncil]

In today's @thetimes Chair of the Bar Sam Townend KC sets out a plan for fixing the criminal justice system, ahead of the Spending Review:
⚖️ match funding for more pupillages
⚖️ changes to the workload on barristers
⚖️ increases in legal aid fees & a commitment to future inflation-related rises
Read Sam's article (£): https://t.co/fmMj4Anuvs

[Ella Sides @EllaSides1]

🥲

[Oasis @oasis]

“This is it, this is happening”
Tickets on sale this Saturday 31st August (🇮🇪8AM IST / 🇬🇧9AM BST)
Dates:
Cardiff Principality Stadium - 4th/5th July
Manchester Heaton Park - 11th/12th/19th/20th July
London Wembley Stadium - 25th/26th July & 2nd/3rd August
Edinburgh Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium - 8th/9th August
Dublin Croke Park - 16th/17th August

[Ella Sides @EllaSides1]

I’m not crying you are 🥲

[The Grand Tour @thegrandtour]

After 8 years of #TheGrandTour, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond & James May take to the road one last time 🛞 #TGTOneForTheRoad #JeremyClarkson #RichardHammond #JamesMay

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

We live by the rule of law in our country not by rule of the mob.  We stand ready, as always, to ensure justice is done in the courts of England & Wales.

Nevertheless we have read a suggestion that “Night courts” could operate to manage the increased numbers of arrested individuals.  Whilst it is our Solicitor colleagues who bear the brunt of this additional work, as Duty Solicitors in the Police Station and in the Magistrates’ Courts, we remain strongly opposed to any attempt to extend court operating hours (“EOH”).  The Criminal Bar is already working at maximum capacity.

Chair Tana Adkin KC