3 February 2014 by Matthew Coxall
Court chaos
[…] In relation to the provision of interpreters, I recently
had a defendant who was produced at court on no fewer than five occasions
without an interpreter being available. The police had failed to book an interpreter
the first time and then on the following four occasions, no one turned up
despite an interpreter being booked by the court. Eventually, the court decided
that enough was enough and bailed the defendant.
This
was a serious case involving an extremely vulnerable alleged victim. But
because of the way in which the defendant had been treated (that is, not
getting an effective hearing for nearly a week), the court reluctantly decided
the defendant should be bailed until such time as proper arrangements could be
made.
More
recently, in relation to another defendant who had been on police bail for
nearly a year and interviewed with an interpreter on a number of occasions
during that period, the police again failed to make arrangements for an
interpreter for the first hearing. The case was deferred for a few days to
arrange an interpreter. At the follow-up hearing, the interpreter said they
would be there at 2pm and the case was put back to 2pm. Then the interpreter
said they were not coming. The court had reluctantly to adjourn once more.
Since I began dictating this letter the interpreter has failed to attend the
preliminary hearing at the Crown court.
These
are just a few recent examples from my own experience and I am sure there are
many other solicitors who have similar tales of woe. […]
No comments:
Post a Comment