A young man got in a fist fight with another young man about a year ago. It was over a woman -- what a surprise! Both young men got black eyes.
A generation ago that would be the end of it.
Today charges were laid for assault.
Maybe that's a good thing -- violence ought to be discouraged.
But then the criminal justice system kicked in. Four court attendances later, at huges cost to society for the Crown, Justice of the Peace, police and assorted clerks etc, we are almost in a position to have a judicial pretrial which would allow everyone to agree on a guilty plea resulting in little more than a promise not to have any more fist fights.
This is a foolish waste of society's resources. (Oh, and my client's money because I get paid too).
What can be done?
Here's a radical idea -- and I don't think it's soft on crime.
Take the minor crime (low level assault, drug possession, perhaps Over 80 where, say, under 120) out of the criminal system altogether. Have a fixed scale of punishments imposed administratively. No judges, lawyers, clerks -- fast and cheap.
It would lead to some wrongful convictions -- but that happens sometimes now. The punishments would have to be fairly light -- significant imprisonment couldn't work. But people don't go to prison for these offences anyway. There would be constitutional issues but they could be worked out.
Take the minor stuff out of the system and there'd be time for the real cases. And delay that exists now would be gone for good.
Maybe too radical a step? Worth a thought.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
2 comments:
I am surprised at the things published in this blog - don't they violate attorney-cliient privilege? How do your clients feel about you posting how silly you think their cases are? Also, I find it bizarre that you post a lot about how stupidly expensive lawyers are - to the point of clients going bankrupt - when you are the one charging the prices that bankrupt them.
They don't violate privilege -- as for driving the clients bankrupt, well, that's something I try to avoid. But we need to fix the system so it works for everyone.
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