Crown Court backlog: 500 cases are waiting

CAN TAKE YEARS FOR CASES TO COME TO COURT

- WILLIAM TELFORD

PLYMOUTH is in the grip of a legal crisis with a backlog of more than 500 cases waiting to be heard in the city’s crown court.

Victims, witnesses and defendants can find themselves waiting years for their day in front of a judge, with the Law Society blaming a shortage of defence solicitors and the Government’s failure to invest in court buildings or raise legal aid rates.

Lubna Shula, president of the Law Society in England and Wales, told The Herald the crisis was acute and getting worse. On a visit to meet lawyers and students in the city she said “This has led to a massive backlog in the crown courts at the moment.”

Ms Shula said most recent figures from the Ministry of Justice reveal that in Plymouth, between October and December 2022, there were 516 crown court cases, waiting to be heard. She said: “That’s a backlog waiting to be dealt with. It’s going up and up.”

The Plymouth backlog has gone up by 13% from the 410 in the same period a year earlier, she said, and is among 62,000 outstanding cases across England and Wales. In Devon there were 61 outstanding rape cases alone in December 2022, a 97% increase on the 31 waiting for trial a year earlier.

“It impacts on witnesses, victims as well as defendants,” Ms Shula said. “They are in limbo, and it affects their families as well.”