Rhiannon Crimmins KC

Barrister at Furnival Chambers @FurnivalLaw - views expressed are my own RTs not endorsements etc etc

[Rhiannon Crimmins KC @rcrimmins7]

☺️

[Furnival Chambers @FurnivalLaw]

Rhiannon Crimmins KC leading Susan Meek secures sole acquittals on all murder, attempted murder & firearms counts following a 12 week trial at the Old Bailey.

Instructed and expertly assisted by Mohammed Zeb and Anna Sidgwick at @StuartMillerLaw.

https://t.co/jAFOJxHAMq

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Congratulations Claire Davies KC. We look forward to continuing the close and productive working relationship forged through @Kirsty_Brimelow KC and Heidi Stonecliffe KC’s ongoing excellent leadership.

#1BarNone.

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Today’s @thetimes
“Riel Karmy-Jones KC, the chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association, said she did “not understand why this core data, which shows that the crown court case backlog in large parts of the country is coming down, was not shared with us, or the parliamentary select committee scrutinising the Courts and Tribunals Bill last week”.

She added: “The debate about jury trials is of such generational importance, not only to the criminal justice system, but society as a whole. Yet for no explicable reason, this data, which may undermine government’s own projections, and was available on the date it was due for publication, appears to have been sat on for many weeks if not many months.”

Karmy-Jones said that “at this crucial stage in negotiations relating to the bill, it is essential that everyone has absolute trust that they are being dealt a fair hand”, adding: “We rely on our government and our MPs to apply a transparent democratic process.”

The association criticised ministers in their promotion of the bill for allegedly relying on an impact assessment that provided “no proper evidential foundation” and which included “assumptions — rather than data”.

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

Sometimes I honestly cannot believe the government is seriously proposing people could be convicted and sent to prison for TWO YEARS (two years?!?) by the Magistrates’ Court with the automatic right of appeal safeguard removed.

You read direct research like this 👇🏼 and shudder.

[Karl Turner MP @KarlTurnerMP]

.@MoJGovUK Ministers including @DavidLammy have been pretending that Sir Brian Leveson blames the backlog in Crown Courts on jury trials when in fact he never has. Sir Brian confirmed as much in evidence before the Public Bill Committee today.

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Statement from Shaun Wallace

I write this statement not only as a barrister, but as someone who has dedicated his life to the rule of law and the principles that underpin our justice system.

Trial by jury is not a procedural luxury. It is a cornerstone of our democracy. For centuries it has ensured that the power of the state is balanced by the judgment of ordinary citizens, twelve members of the public, drawn from our communities, sitting in judgment not as agents of the government, but as representatives of society itself.

When the right to a jury trial is weakened, something far greater than courtroom procedure is at risk. We risk eroding public confidence in the justice system, and we risk concentrating power where it should never sit unchecked.

The right to be judged by one’s peers is a safeguard against injustice. It protects against haste, against convenience, and against the idea that efficiency should ever trump fairness.

Those of us who practise in the criminal courts see every day what is truly at stake. The liberty, reputation, and future of individuals depend upon a system that is not only fair, but seen to be fair.

That is why you are gathered today, not for yourselves, but for the integrity of the justice system; not for tradition alone, but for the protection of every citizen who may one day stand in the dock and depend upon the wisdom of a jury.

I want to thank all those attending Westminster today to protest, to make your voices heard, and to stand up for a principle that lies at the very heart of our justice system.

Every generation inherits the responsibility to defend the liberties it was given. Today, that responsibility rests with us.

Let this gathering send a clear message: the right to be judged by one’s peers is not negotiable, not expendable, and not something to be quietly eroded in the name of convenience.

Justice is not an administrative inconvenience. It is the foundation of a free society.

Shaun Wallace
Barrister
Great James Street Chambers

[The Bar Council @thebarcouncil]

More than 300 KCs and 22 retired judges are among the 3,236 legal professionals who have signed our letter calling on the Prime Minister to stop the government's jury trial proposal ahead of a parliamentary debate on new legislation to restrict jury trials today.

Our letter urges the government against draining valuable time and resources from our criminal justice system by attempting to force through an unpopular, untested and poorly evidenced change to our jury system.

Among the signatories alongside Bar Council Chair and Vice Chair, Criminal Bar Association Chair and Vice Chair and all Circuit leaders are legal leaders, including the former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir David Calvert-Smith, @JUSTICEhq Chief Exec Fiona Rutherford, @APPEALcharity_ Co Director Emma Torr and 4 former Chairs of the Bar Council as well as two former Chairs of @TheCriminalBar.

Several well-known on-screen faces have also signed the letter including 'Judge Rinder’ @RobbieRinder, ‘chaser’ @TheShaunWallace and both barrister contestants from this year’s Traitors series, Harriet Tyce and Hugo Lodge.

@Kirsty_Brimelow said: "This letter and its more than 3,000 signatories demonstrate the unequivocal principled and practical opposition to the restriction of jury trials from not only the Bar, but the legal profession as a whole...

“It’s not too late for the government to listen to us as experts and as a profession and stop before bulldozing our jury system. We are ready to support a turn to the efficiencies that will increase productivity and will actually make a difference to the backlog and delays.”

Read more: https://t.co/CZmn780fpz

#JusticeNeedsJuries

[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.

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

This. Via @PeterStefanovi2

Juries are set for the chop for serious offences carrying up to 3 years in prison.

Time for MPs to listen to what they are being asked by the Deputy PM and PM to take away from the people who elect them into office.

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

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

For any MP unsure of how to vote on the government’s proposals to restrict trial by jury.

https://t.co/uEc72prMnz

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

The Nutshell Guide to The Courts and Tribunal Bill 2026
2
The CBA's Position on Trial by Jury
The CBA strongly opposes the curtailment of the right to trial by jury for either way offences.
These proposals will not solve the backlog.

[The Bar Council @thebarcouncil]

⏰ Please add your name to our open letter to the Prime Minister setting out why we oppose the government's plan to restrict jury trials.

Help us send a strong message to the government to ask them to rethink the approach.

Sign your name by 9am tomorrow, Mon 2nd March ➡️ https://t.co/O0vG7a9APR

Thank you for your support.

#JusticeNeedsJuries

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Defendants ‘priced out of justice’ by cuts to jury trials

Read Andrew Thomas KC, CBA Vice Chair, explain how more cases being heard in the magistrates will mean more defendants being ineligible to legal aid, more having to self-represent and more delay.
https://t.co/PfvlF83ubT

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

“This is an affront to justice.”
Andrew Thomas KC, vice-chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said the bill would mean “ordinary people will be priced out of justice”.
He said trials with unrepresented defendants could actually take longer, adding: “So much for swift justice.”

Today’s @thetimes by Sunday Times special correspondent @emilydugan

He said: “This is an affront to justice. It risks miscarriages of justice for middle-income people from hardworking families who earn too much to qualify for legal aid but not enough to afford to pay a lawyer to represent them in a three or four-day trial. It also means that complainants will face being cross-examined by the very people who they allege abused or assaulted them.”

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Just like magic, the work will disappear!
The Impact Assessment for the Courts Bill 2026 claims that the Magistrates' Courts will be able to complete cases THREE TIMES FASTER than the Crown Court. It assumes that work which is currently taking 24,000 sitting days in the Crown Court, staffed by professional judges, will be completed within 8,500 sitting days in the Magistrates' Court, staffed by volunteer magistrates. How can that be so?
Well, the IA goes on to say that it is assumed that magistrates will be able to complete the more serious and complex trials which would now been allocated to them within an average of 4 hours. Guilty pleas will take 30 minutes.
So under this new system a defendant will have 4 hours to challenge the case against them (including time for resolving applications such as disclosure, bad character, hearsay, s.41 etc), when facing a prison sentence of 18 months or 2 years.
Either this is going to be rough justice, or the assumptions in the IA are deeply flawed.

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Read Mark Robinson, criminal barrister at @gardencourtlaw explain why #JusticeNeedsJuries to Black Current News “the argument is structural, he says. “Twelve people have to justify their reasoning to each other,” the barrister explains. “A single judge doesn’t”
Juries deliberate together and bring different life experiences into the room.
They are not perfect, Marks says, but collective reasoning can expose and dilute prejudice in a way a single decision-maker cannot.”

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Scrapping jury trials could hit Black communities harder. Here’s why

Replacing twelve with one could weaken a key safeguard against racial bias writes Black Current News https://t.co/h4iVOlj2mU

[The Bar Council @thebarcouncil]

"All the things that are in [Leveson] Part 2 really need to be looked at before we start taking a knife and stabbing the heart out of the system that is a system the world admires for a good reason," said Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC.

Speaking on a panel at Gray's Inn, the former Old Bailey judge argued that we need to see how much improvement can be made by efficiency and putting money into the criminal justice system before we start taking away people's right to jury trial.

Watch the full discussion ⤵️
https://t.co/HTo8ZJiDa1

#JusticeNeedsJuries

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

“there is a third group the criminal justice system is designed to serve that’s missing from the government’s analysis: the innocent. For those wrongfully accused by police and prosecutors — and it really could one day be any of us — jury trial is the key step that stands between them and wrongful conviction.” @soniasodha in @thetimes

[Karl Turner MP @KarlTurnerMP]

As I was saying earlier, every single falsely accused sub-postmaster would have been refused a jury trial. ⁦@DavidLammy⁩ needs to think on.

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

Today’s @thetimes
“Riel Karmy-Jones KC, Chair of the CBA, warns that the Ministry of Justice's "carefully crafted" messages on the jury system "must not be allowed to hide the true message of [Leveson's] report... the consequences of 20 years of chronic neglect and the costly measures which are needed to be taken to repair the damage".