Justice for the Poor It is a very real grievance
that poor persons convicted in a court of summary jurisdiction cannot appeal to Quarter Sessions because the appellant must deposit or find a recognizance for £50 within ten days or lose his right. Mr. Turton's Summary Jurisdiction (Appeal) Bill would remedy this defect in the law, and, as the Bill received support from both sides of the House last Friday and had the sympathy of the Government, it ought to reach the Statute Book. Doubtless, most of the cases heard by local justices are trivial. Yet it is hard to believe that, while 442 out of 8,000 persons convicted at Assizes or Quarter Sessions in 1930 appealed against their sentences, not more than 314 out of the 520,000 persons convicted in local courts would have appealed but for the legal obstacles. Justices of the Peace may err as often as the professional judges, to say the least. As a Departmental Committee is considering the question, the Bill is to wait for the Committee's report. But it ought to be passed this session.
* *
Previous page
