JURIES DELIBERATING on white-collar criminal trials, including those relating to the banking crisis, will be aided by a range of new measures aimed at simplifying complex financial evidence.
The new provisions mean juries hearing evidence in cases relating to practices at Anglo Irish Bank will be able to request simplified versions of company accounts.
They will also have available to them easy-to-follow versions of the paper trails from transactions under examination, and to hear expert witnesses explain complex documents.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said he hoped the provisions would mean jury members with no understanding of the financial sector or the corporate environment could understand all of the evidence.
He has described the new system as an important step in tackling white-collar crime.
“For too long the complexity of evidence in fraud trials has been allowed to stand as a barrier to effective prosecutions,” he said.
The package has been signed into effect by Mr Shatter and will be used in major theft and fraud cases. The provisions were included in the Criminal Justice Act, 2001, but were never signed into effect because of concerns at the time about the associated cost and technical difficulties.
However, Mr Shatter believes advances in audiovisual equipment negated some of those concerns. The benefit to the legal process of producing copies of evidence transcripts for all jury members in a trial far outweighed the costs. “Courts will be able to ensure that juries are assisted in analysing evidence,” he said.
The new measures apply from August 1st and can be used in any criminal trial taking place after that date regardless of when the alleged crimes were committed.
At present, while jury members can at the end of the trial ask questions about any of the evidence, they are not given access to documents in the case to take away and study. They are also not supplied with transcripts of the evidence.
Instead, if they want to revisit evidence they can make a request to the judge, who then reads the relevant section of the transcript aloud to the jury in open court.
Under the measures just signed into effect, juries in white-collar crime cases can have any section of the case’s transcript made available to them.
Jurors will also be given any other document – including simplified versions of financial records and accounts – relating to the crimes under deliberation, once the trial judge approves.
These records, in easy-to-follow form, will be compiled by an accountant from the more complex records and accounts generated by alleged white-collar criminal practices.
The simplified versions will be presented to the court in affidavit form and will be supplied to the prosecution and defence legal teams in advance of the case.
The judge will also give each side the opportunity to raise any concerns about the simplified documents before the trial starts. Those who compiled the simplified records may also be called to give expert evidence.