Cutting juries from some trials could speed up judicial process, new report suggests

Scrapping juries in cases involving less serious offences could drastically reduce the length and cost of trials, according to the Times’ Crime and Justice Commission.

The commission calls for a new “intermediate court” where cases involving “lower-level crimes”, such as theft, would be tried by a judge and two magistrates instead of a jury.

Trials might only take three to four hours, the report suggests, and at least 12,000 cases carrying a maximum sentence of two years could be tried under the new system annually.

But there are trade-offs. Professor Cheryl Thomas, who has studied juries for more than 15 years, warns against efforts to “tinker” with a system that is working.

“When a jury reaches a verdict,” she writes in the report, “it is the one part of the system where ethnic minorities are not disproportionately treated.”

Those on the bench, the barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind said on X, rarely share the experiences of people in the dock.