Transforming Summary Justice: Modernisation in the Lower Criminal Courts. By Jenni Ward (London: Routledge, 2017, 164 pp. £93.99)

Abstract

Following the 2007/8 financial crash, Her Majesties Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) was confronted with a challenge: to make cost savings and, at the same time, improve the quality of justice. This was the message in the Ministry of Justice (2012) report Swift and Sure Justice, as it called upon criminal justice services to ‘achieve better for less’ (p. 20). Since then, critics have raised concerns about the changes that are ongoing in the Magistrates courts of England and Wales, claiming that there has been a rise in morally questionable ‘DIY defence’ practices and that HMCTS has been making use of unfair ‘trial by Skype’ initiatives (see Doward and Dare 2016; Robins 2017). Jenni Ward’s book, Transforming Summary Justice: Modernisation in the Lower Criminal Courts, speaks to such contemporary, ongoing concerns. Ward identifies, and rightly so in my opinion, that there has been a lack of research conducted by independent, critical researchers into the delivery of justice in the lower courts. In being prompted by critics concerns regarding due process and in identifying a research gap, Ward set out to investigates the quality of summary justice in England and Wales.