Good communication is essential for justice. A large majority of evidence in criminal legal cases comes from people’s words: The words of a person harmed, the words of people that saw, the words of the person accused. The story of a crime must be heard by a police officer, who must communicate that story to a decision maker, who decides if a barrister could communicate it strongly enough to a court. A judge listens to different stories to decide which much be true. Good communication is the difference between a criminal conviction or someone walking free.

The justice system is a complex arena where communication is not ‘normal’. There are many rules for what can and can’t be said and strange old conventions for how communication must take place. There are so many complicated rules and complex procedures, in fact, that studying the law is considered quite the challenge and the jobs of lawyers and judges are difficult to attain. Children, however, are expected to somehow navigate this system without any legal education or practice and be able to communicate relevant information with adults in accordance with these complicated rules. So are adults with learning difficulties, frightened victims of crime and other individuals with complex needs that might not find these tasks straightforward.

Intermediaries

Intermediaries are communication specialists that support police interviewers, lawyers, judges and other professionals to communicate effectively with young and/or vulnerable individuals. Intermediaries can work with suspects, witnesses and victims to facilitate communication at both interview and trial, to help ensure that people are heard and understood correctly.

The law in England and Wales however, only provides this service for children and vulnerable adults when they appear as a victim or witness of crime. Children and vulnerable people that are accused of a crime are not legally entitled to the same assistance with communication from an intermediary, meaning that their opportunities to communicate their own evidence or understand the processes are more limited.

Intermediaries for witnesses and victims are provided through The Witness Intermediary Scheme (WIS) , managed by the National Crime Agency. All Intermediaries provided through the Witness Intermediary Scheme are Registered with the Ministry of Justice and receive centralised training.

Whilst suspects/defendants fall outside the legal provision, the courts are still allowed to use their own discretion to bring in an intermediary, if to do so would ensure a fair trial. However, they cannot use the same statutory service available for witnesses and victims. This means that there is no Registered facility or guarantee of intermediary quality for suspects/defendants and that the court must use their own knowledge and judgement in selecting one.

You can learn more about intermediaries and approaches to questioning vulnerable witnesses, victims or suspects/defendants through The Advocates Gateway.

Lesley Laver is a Registered Intermediary with the Ministry of Justice/National Crime Agency’s Witness Intermediary Scheme. She is also available for suspect/defence work. If you are a police officer or prosecutor you can request a Registered Intermediary for a witness by contacting the Major Crime Investigation Support team on 0345 000 5463. If you are looking for Intermediary support for a suspect or defendant, you can contact Lesley directly using the contact details on this page.

Resources

Much of the information available to explain legal rights is in the form of printed word and contains legal language and complex concepts. This format is not suitable for everyone. Lesley, her research team and collaborators are working to develop and draw together legal information in a variety of different formats, including app, video and picture based resources. To learn more about these resources and how to develop age and vulnerability-appropriate resources for your own applications, please get in touch via the contacts page.