Britain’s most senior judge has called for judges and the legal system to place more trust in the common sense of juries.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, said that legal directions given by judges to juries tended to confuse them rather than make their task simpler.

“I have been concerned at the number of directions that are given to juries that are no more than matters of common sense,” he said delivering the Criminal Bar Association Kalisher lecture in London.

Most judges were familiar with seeing jurors’ eyes “glaze over” as they gave a series of directions aimed at protecting themselves against an appeal on grounds of misdirection, Lord Phillips added. Other directions were simply too long, he added.

Lord Phillips announced a working party under Sir David Latham, a Court of Appeal judge, to explore whether jury directions could be simplified or even abandoned.

But that reform might not go far enough, Lord Phillips said, as he called for renewed consideration of proposals made seven years ago in a landmark report on the criminal justice system.

The report, by Sir Robin Auld, raised the idea that juries be given a summary of the case, questions they had to decide and the nature of the charges accompanied with a short narrative of agreed facts and a list of contested facts.

At the end, the judge would no longer direct the jury on the law or sum up the evidence, Lord Phillips explained. ”

Instead, he suggested, the judge should remind the jury of the issues, relevant evidence and of the defence. He would put to the jury questions to be answered that would lead to a verdict of guilty or not guilty.

”These proposals were made seven years ago. They have not been taken up. The time may come when they receive future consideration. We must now place more trust in the jury."

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