The end of the saga?

I was in Leeds Magistrates' Court again today with Shaun [see previous posts here (1st), here, and here (latest)]. They dropped the case before we even went in, although they did make us wait for 20 mins first.

There are a few points that are worth mentioning I think: although this is a very inconsequential case, it does have some lessons and maybe point to some wider problems. I'm going to be very nit-picky here, but I think it's worth considering these subtle issues because they do make a difference to people going before the courts, even if not to the legal bureaucracy.

1. If we had got into the court, I wouldn't have been able to speak again. I was unhappy last time that I went to speak on Shaun's behalf, and the court official lied to me and I was prevented from speaking. In fact it wasn't that sort of hearing, but I would have understood and accepted this if I'd been told clearly what was going on - there was no need to lie to me.

Today I informed the court immediately that I had come as Shaun's character witness, and they did their job properly - they said the hearing was just to set a court date and to get details of any witnesses that would be called. This is certainly progress, but at the last hearing both Shaun and I were given the clear impression that today would be the actual hearing date - so it seemed to him that I'd needlessly wasted my time again. He didn't have any letter explaining what the purpose of today's hearing was.

2. I think this is fairly typical. I rarely go to Court myself, but I know a variety of people who do end up there more regularly, and I've certainly heard of people turning up to court date after court date only for it to be adjourned again. I can imagine this is particularly difficult for any witnesses who come out of work, ahng around for an hour or something, and then have to rearrange again.

3. It's not just us wasting time. That's two court dates already and who knows how much paperwork by the Police, the Court Service, the Crown Prosecution Service. For a faulty brake light. How much has this cost already?

4. We were told, after 20 mins, that Shaun's case had been looked at and the charges were being dropped. We could 'just go' and we wouldn't hear anything about it again. No letter, no receipt, just go away and forget about it. We couldn't help but compare this to two other things. Firstly when Shaun found out that this hearing was just to set a trial date, he asked if he needed to stay? He was told that if he didn't attend today a warrant would be made out for his arrest - serious stuff - he must stay and go into court. The other thing was his last court appearance when the Police forgot to record that he had produced his documents - what if the Court forget to record that they weren't going to pursue this brake-light case...?

5. Finally, Shaun was saying there's just no accountability for what happened. Five months ago he was stopped by a van-load of Police, falsely accused of drug-dealing, searched, and given a ticket for the minor unrelated issue of a faulty brake-light. Since then the Court Service and the CPS have been involved, the bureaucracy has run its course, and now they're just saying 'forget it all'. What about those police who originally stopped Shaun though? Will they learn of this? Do they think they did anything wrong? Are they sorry? Or will the CPS say 'wait a minute, this was a waste of time and money - we don't want this to happen again, so let's give the Police some feedback...'? It seems unlikely.

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I'm sneaking this post into 'work time', although since I'm not getting paid that's probably not so relevant. Anyway one of my advocacy colleagues has just walked in and heard a bit of the story. His reaction? "I think at the very least Shaun is owed an apology for wasting his time."

I can't see that happening at all, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this way.