03 January 2008
L v CPS [2007] EWHC 1843 (Admin), [2007] All ER (D) 224 (Jul)
A case on the importance of note-taking in the magistrates’ court.
Mr Justice Collins, para 27:
“it is desirable that a note should be taken by someone—whether the clerk or someone deputized by the clerk—which is capable of being used as a formal note of the evidence if there is any later dispute as to what was or was not said in the course of evidence at the hearing”.
Lord Justice Auld, at para 37:
“It is clearly important that adequate notes are made, even in comparatively minor cases …, going, albeit briefly, to the basis upon which the prosecution case is opened, the salient features of the evidence on both sides, and to any submissions as to law of the sort that occurred …”
