Remote juries roll-out for sheriff courts

Tony Lenehan

 

THE Vice-President of the Scottish Criminal Bar Association (SCBA), Tony Lenehan, will represent the Faculty on a group which is to work on restarting sheriff and jury trials using remote jury centres.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has announced plans to set up remote jury centres for 18 jury trial courts across Scotland’s six sheriffdoms. Centres for Lothian and Borders and Glasgow and Strathkelvin should be in place by December and other sheriffdoms will follow in early 2021.

A cross-justice group, led by Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull, will help this roll-out of the High Court remote jury centre model to resume sheriff court trials quickly and effectively.

Ronnie Renucci, QC, Vice-Dean of Faculty and SCBA President, said: "The Faculty very much welcomes today's announcement. The resumption of Sheriff Court jury trials within individual Sheriffdoms is the last piece in the solemn business jigsaw to be tackled, and follows on from the successful reintroduction of High Court trials using the remote jury centre model. 

“The fact that this model is capable of being transferred to the Sheriff Court highlights not only the radical solution found by Lady Dorrian's Working Group to the problem of resuming jury trials in the High Court, but also its great versatility. 

“I am also pleased to confirm that the Faculty will be ably represented on Sheriff Principal Turnbull's group by Tony Lenehan, Vice-President of the SCBA."