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Crown Court reform on the cards?

15 January 2025
Issue: 8100 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal
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Lawyers have until 31 January to respond to Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review of the criminal courts.

The review, launched last month, considers how to deal with the increasing number of cases coming before the courts and the backlog of Crown Court cases that has built up. Long-term reforms could include creating an intermediate court or structural changes to the conduct of trials.

The backlog now stands at 74,000 cases, according to the latest official figures, which makes the government target of 53,000 cases by March impossible to achieve.

Sir Brian said this week: ‘We would encourage those responding to the call for evidence to be ambitious, and we welcome any ideas which challenge current thinking, are innovative, or which spotlight best practice and how it can be extended.’

Send responses to independentreviewcriminalcourts@justice.gov.uk.

Issue: 8100 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal
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