City's legal system in crisis and getting worse

PLYMOUTH’S legal crisis has got worse, with a backlog of more than 270 cases waiting to be heard in the city’s crown court.

- WILLIAM TELFORD

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

Nick Emmerson, president of the Law Society in England and Wales said the crisis was severe and getting worse. On a visit to meet lawyers and students in the city he outlined problems in the justice system and said: “The prisons are full, there is a big lag in cases being heard, there are not enough lawyers or court staff, and there is crumbling infrastructure.”

He told The Herald that the most recent figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) reveal that in Plymouth between October and December 2023 there were 271 outstanding criminal court cases waiting to be heard. That figure was up from 251 cases in the same period in 2022 and 201 a year before that.

Mr Emmerson said that MoJ figures showed that in the whole South West there were more than 5,000 outstanding criminal court cases between October and December 2023, and it took an average of 136 days for outstanding cases to reach completion.

“Those are just in that quarter,” Mr Emmerson said. “And they are all going up. There is a backlog and congestion in the system.