Justice wide open - communities and courts

Communities and the courts, what’s going on? a practitioner perspective Justice Wide Open 29 February 2012 William Perrin william@talkaboutlocal.org @willperrin Talk About Local Ltd http://talkaboutlocal.org• William Perrin TAL

Abandoned cars and weekly arsonBingfield Park, Rufford Street 2002 Pics – Mark Bailey

www.kingscrossenvironment.comOver 1500 articlesSix volunteer writers – aged up to 65Campaigns, information, wildlife,events etcStrongly pro community/placeImportant part of widerregeneration400-500 readers a day

Crime and confidence in justicesystem major local issueHighbury Corner busy very localmagistrates courtImpossible for a regular citizen tofind out what is happening at thecourt without going there – both thedaily listings and the results of justiceObviously, if you have a day job youcan’t keep going thereIt’s 2012 – why aren’t listings andresults online?

Can journalists readily andreliably get this basicinformation?Professional court reporters citeKafkaesque tales of dysfunctionalbureaucracy.‘There is a widespread viewamong many court staff thatdetails like defendants’ names,addresses and dates of birth areconfidential pieces ofinformation. ‘-Locked metal boxes- Lists confiscated-Lists only have minority of cases- Lists appearing at end of dayconcerned not start

Courts Transparency Charter Administrative statement by the Chief Presiding Judge and Secretary of State. To give individuals administrative ‘rights’ that they can enforce with court officers Three simple things: Forward listings – what’s happening when, charges, published in timely manner Participant details - names etc of all lawyers, judges, magistrates, victims, witnesses Results – guilty, not guilty etc Two principles Respect all conventions of protection of vulnerable people and contempt Subject to protection, everything published online to the world, not just the mediahttp://tal.me.uk/c3

Head on collision between uncodified tradition of open justice and badly codified, badly implemented data protection, copyright, privacy

Join the debate at http://tal.me.uk/c3 William Perrin @willperrinwilliam@talkaboutlocal.org

Justice wide open - communities and courts

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