Ministers, impressed with speedy post-riots justice, consider cash-saving measure, according to Magistrates' Association
Ministers are considering plans to take away defendants' rights to jury trial, according to the Magistrates' Association.
The proposal is being considered as part of a cash-saving drive, building on lessons learned from processing offenders following last summer's riots.
Cases known as "either way offences", where the accused can opt for trial in a magistrates court or in front of a jury at crown court, are most likely to be affected.
Such cases usually involve relatively low-value thefts, such as shoplifting, or minor cases of criminal damage.
Ministers have been impressed with the speed with which justice was dispensed after August's riots.
The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, has suggested that magistrates might be given greater sentencing powers, increasing the maximum term they might be able to impose from six to 12 months for a single offence.
But the Ministry of Justice played down reports of a review of trial procedures, insisting that: "We have no plans to remove trial by jury."
Trials at crown court cost more than three times as much as in the lower courts.
Criminal barristers and human rights groups are likely to be extremely worried by an erosion of what is seen as a fundamental liberty.
A spokesperson for the Magistrates' Association confirmed that discussions were taking place with ministers and that the organisation backed the move.
"It's being considered, apparently in the light of the riots," the spokesperson said. "It's something we have been concerned about for a while.
"Particularly for theft where someone might nick a bottle of wine and then elect to go for crown court trial. That costs a lot of money."