Solicitors have expressed pessimism over whether an additional
court tier will help reduce the rocketing criminal court
backlogs.
The Law Society of England and Wales carried out research, in
collaboration with Sky News, asking solicitors for their views on
potential reforms to the criminal courts. Proposals include
introducing an intermediate court, which would be known as the
Crown Court Bench Division. The research revealed that:
- Solicitors felt a broad range of measures would be required
for an additional court tier to be effective, including
additional court staff who are fully trained, and increased
public funding for legal defence.*
- Most solicitors think the introduction of an additional court
tier would make the justice system worse (56%) and is unlikely to
reduce the backlogs (60%).**
- Almost three-quarters (73%) of the solicitors surveyed were
concerned about jury trials being removed as part of the
proposals.***
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: “Our criminal
justice system - a vital public service - has been starved of
resources for decades with inevitable dire consequences.
“These include the massive criminal court backlogs which result
in unacceptable delays for victims, witnesses and defendants,
with cases listed for 2029.
“The research results reflect our concerns over the effectiveness
of introducing an additional tier of courts when the existing
magistrates' courts and Crown Courts are already overwhelmed and
under-resourced. Where are the spare judges, magistrates, court
staff and lawyers going to come from? Unless action is taken to
halt the dwindling availability of criminal defence solicitors,
the reforms could be fatally undermined. While there is spare
capacity in the court estate in some parts of the country, this
is not universally the position and so extra physical capacity
will also have to be found for the new court tier to be able to
sit.
“Solicitors also share our concerns over removing the right to
trial by jury for serious offences. The proposed new division of
the Crown Court on its own is not a silver bullet and will not
solve the Crown Court backlog. The government would have
undermined our historic jury system for no effect. Only
investment in the whole system, as envisaged by Sir Brian Leveson
in his report, has any chance of success.”
Notes to editors
- The survey ran from 30 May-18 June with 545 solicitors
responding.
- * Measures required for an additional court tier to succeed
- ** Introduction of an additional court tier
- *** Impact of the reforms on jury trials
