Criminal justice in the dock, says word on the street

It was a week for surveys, with The Independent (5 November) claiming that more defendants than ever before - one in four - are being acquitted by juries.

Of the 74,700 defendants who stood trial in the Crown Court last year, 25% were acquitted compared with 18% before Labour came to power in 1997.

Civil rights groups have 'seized on' the findings, claiming that they confirm jury trials as 'an important safeguard in preventing miscarriages of justice', and declaring that 'thousands of innocent people would be denied a fair trial if the government presses ahead with its plans to curb the right to jury trial'.

The aforementioned plans - as contained in the Auld report on the criminal justice system - propose an 'even greater restriction to jury trial than contained in Labour's two Mode of Trial bills' and have, unsurprisingly, 'been rejected by the legal profession'.

Another survey, this one carried out by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), produced somewhat more alarming results, with the revelation that 'one in eight Britons have [sic] such little faith in the criminal justice system that they wouldn't even bother to report a murder they'd witnessed' (Daily Star, 31 October.

It also claimed that 69% would not call the police if they heard screaming from their neighbours, and 'a huge 70% wouldn't report a street brawl'.

People are apparently 'frightened of retribution, anxious about how police and the courts would treat them and didn't really fancy the inconvenience'.

A spokesman for the IPPR said, in a triumph of understatement, that the results reflected a 'failure of the justice system'.When weighing up this country's justice system, the British public should really cast a glance across the Atlantic to get a proper idea of standards and levels of absurdity.

London's Evening Standard reported on US lawyers who 'tired of fleecing their human clients, have turned their attention to animals' (1 November).

A growing number of lawyers, known as 'doggy defenders', represent both animals accused of violence - such as 'Lucky', a Rottweiler accused of biting three people - and owners seeking damages from people who have killed or injured their pets.

The sums involved can be impressive, such as the woman who last year won $20,000 (13,700) following a botched operation on her dog, as 'emotionally charged lawsuits can pull jurors' heartstrings'.Another lawyer who seems to have fallen on his feet is Manchester solicitor Nick Freeman, who wasfted last week for securing the 'remarkable acquittal of a police inspector's wife caught four times over the drink drive limit' (The Independent, 30 October).

Mr Freeman, who is 'renowned for successfully defending celebrities such as Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham charged with motoring offences', argued that the results of breath tests on the woman 'should be set aside because of procedural breaches by the police'.And finally, the 'all publicity is good publicity' school of thought is probably being put to the test in the marketing department of Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett, which was targeted in 'Pseud's Corner' in the current issue of Private Eye.

A recent Gazette story on said firm's rebranding was quoted, with marketing partner Richard Marshall explaining the significance of the symbol o2 in the firm's new logo - it apparently 'symbolises squaring the circle, which is what we do'.Victoria MacCallum