December 14, 2025
On Saturday 6th December, Geoffrey Rivlin KC (former Resident Judge at Southwark Crown Court) addressed The Criminal Bar Association Annual Conference about the risks of judge-only trials. Today we publish a lightly edited version of his paper in FOCUS.
The key points include:
• Judge-only trials will not save money: evidence shows they won’t reduce backlogs or costs, since juries are not the cause of delays.
• Removing the collective deliberation of twelve jurors concentrates judgment in a single individual, heightening the risk of subjective bias.
• Impact on complainants: victims may feel disadvantaged if defendants can opt for judge-only trials, creating perceptions of unfairness and undermining confidence in justice.
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Editor of FOCUS: Ed Vickers KC
Editor of The Fraud Newsletter: Faras Baloch
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