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Racism
in the courts
A report from the Lord Chancellor's Department has found that although the
courts and judges are moving in the right direction, ethnic solicitors are still
more likely to witness racism in the courts. And the problem could be worse than
reported as many are too fearful to speak out. Lawrence Davies, manager of the
Race Discrimination Unit, talks to Helen Brown...
According to a
depressing report from the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) revealed last
week, it seems that black solicitors are much more likely to perceive racism
within the courts. They are also more likely to have actually witnessed racism
affecting the system. Academics commissioned by the LCD interviewed 112 lawyers
- including 68 solicitors and 50 from ethnic minorities - for the report on the
perception of how ethnic minorities are treated by the criminal courts. Only 43%
of black lawyers said ethnic minorities are always treated fairly and with equal
respect by the criminal courts, compared to 69% of white lawyers and 63% of
Asian lawyers.
While only16% of all the lawyers were able to back up their opinion with
specific examples 30% of black lawyers had no difficulty citing individual
racist incidents.
The LCD�s academics spoke to a total of 1,252 people (mainly
defendants) for the report which established that a third of defendants in Crown
Courts and a quarter in magistrates' courts said their treatment had been unfair
- irrespective of colour. Only 25% of ethnic minority defendants in the Crown
Court, and 10% in magistrates' courts, agreed that the reason for that unfair
treatment was racially motivated. LCD minister Baroness Scotland told the press
that 'The message is definitely one of the courts and judges moving in the right
direction.'
Lawrence Davies, Manager of the Race Discrimination Unit and candidate for
a post of Chair at the ET agrees that �The LCD report makes for disappointing
but predictable reading. The main concern is that the report almost certainly
under-estimates the problems of such discrimination because black lawyers are
too scared to speak out due to a justifiable fear of victimisation by their
professional bodies.
�We were already aware that such problems existed at the bar and in the
solicitor's profession having had conduct of the Eric Adusei case against Gordon
Pringle (barrister) and the cases of Rosetta Offonry and Kamlesh Bahl case
against the Law Society. Following Imran Khan's challenge to the Law Society
concerning institutional discrimination over 1,000 solicitors voted that there
are such problems of discrimination. Everyone in the profession knows about it,
but no one acts.
�Hence, many black solicitors will say off the record that they have
experienced racial discrimination at court, with, for example, black lawyers
often being wrongly identified as court clerks. There is also anecdotal
evidence of judges mimicking foreign accents in the privacy of their chambers.
In one case we brought, a black female court clerk at Wood Green Crown Court
claimed that she was racially abused by other court staff.�
Davies concludes that �Judges require more training on equal
opportunities and to have better life skills and knowledge. Society has changed
from the days in which the judges learnt their trade and so have attitudes. We
believe that courts and tribunal hearing cases which involve a claim for
discrimination should be expert in the field of discrimination, as
discrimination often requires a different type of analysis to the typical
forensic approach adopted in the High Court.� (25/03/03)
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