An HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) plan for recovery, the ‘COVID-19: overview of HMCTS response’, published last week, proposed extending operating hours in the autumn. The government is also considering using judge-only trials or smaller juries.
In a joint statement, Law Society president Simon Davis and Bar Council chair Amanda Pinto QC said: ‘The backlog in the Crown Court approached 40,000 cases even before the crisis, despite there being judges available, as the government did not fund the judicial time needed.’
They said jury trials were vital for the rule of law, and extending court operating hours would come at ‘a big financial cost’ to the public purse while adversely affecting court users, solicitors and advocates.
Instead, they suggested ‘more efficient use of the current court estate, greater use of part-time judges, better and greater use of robust technology and additional court buildings, similar to the “Nightingale” hospitals.
‘These “Blackstone” courts would use public or private buildings currently lying idle. Local barristers and solicitors are identifying suitable buildings to add to the court. This combination of solutions would allow safe distancing in existing buildings, add overall capacity to the number of court rooms, and be convenient for participants.’
Meanwhile, Criminal Bar Association (CBA) chair Caroline Goodwin QC has voiced concern that barristers are being asked to attend court unnecessarily or at short notice.
In her blog this week, Goodwin said: ‘Trials are not coming on in numbers sufficient to address the financial problems we are having and to rub salt into the wound, we are being told to go to court when quite frankly it is not necessary.
‘The CBA office has been inundated with emails where counsel have been told last minute that they will be expected to attend at court or reasonable requests which satisfy the “interests of justice” test have been waved aside or those with medical problems have not received the proper regard that they deserve.’
