Paul Harris attended the Snaresbrook Crown Court User's meeting on the 23rd November and submits his report.

The two developments of note to update members on are as follows: -

1. The Court is obviously very concerned that Defence Case Statements are served before, or at the very latest, at the PCMH in accordance with directions.   If clients do not attend appointments and are not in contact with solicitors, the Court expects solicitors to contact the Court and list the matter for non-cooperation prior to the plea and case management hearing.
2. A case management working group at Snaresbrook Crown Court was set up to examine how case progression meetings might be improved.  A new case progression document has been drawn up which will be piloted from January 2012.   The purpose of the document is to enable the case progression officer to have a much better idea of the state of readiness of the cases which are imminently to appear in a warned list or as fixtures. The idea is that the form will be distributed at the PCMH and all parties will be expected to complete the form in advance of case progression meetings.   Ideally the prosecution will complete their part and then send it to the defence who will return it to the prosecution and the Court.  The proposed form which will be handed out at PCMH.