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Supreme Court quashes Libor traders' convictions over jury misdirection, undermining case for judge-only complex fraud trials in England and Wales

Published on: 28 July 2025

Published by a Law360 reporter
Legal News
Article summary

On 23 July 2025, the UK Supreme Court overturned the convictions of former City traders Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo. The justices concluded that procedural missteps by the trial judges rendered the outcomes unsafe. Their trenchant remarks about judges exceeding their remit, together with unease over how effectively the criminal appeal system corrects legal errors, have shifted attention onto the judiciary just as the government weighs scrapping jury trials in fraud cases altogether...

Nick Brett, a partner at Brett Wilson, warned the ruling will only heighten concerns about further miscarriages of justice if the role of the jury is curtailed. Criminal defence lawyers have been unsettled since a major independent review, released on 9 July 2025, recommended that serious and complex fraud matters be determined by a judge sitting alone. The plan is designed to reduce the record backlog of 77,000 cases in the crown courts and to alleviate pressure on England’s ailing criminal justice system...

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