This ‘is worrying’, he said in his speech to the Annual Bar and Young Bar Conference this week, as the longer it takes for a case to come to trial the more likely it is that something will go wrong with it. Moreover, it was ‘simply not acceptable to keep all those involved in a Crown Court trial waiting for longer than is reasonably necessary.’
Looking ahead, Lord Burnett said technology ‘in support of hearings’ would continue to be important in 2021 but technology ‘is our servant and should never become our master’.
‘As a result of the COVID emergency we have been engaged in the biggest pilot project ever in the courts and have taken three steps forward,’ he said.
‘We are likely to take one step back but there is no going back to February 2020. The days of two lawyers travelling for an hour or two, sitting around outside court and then going in to argue for 15 or 20 minutes over a procedural matter are gone for good.
‘So, too, for many short appeals and other hearings which do not require the attendance of witnesses. There are some circumstances in which witnesses might properly be heard remotely.’
In terms of practice areas, Lord Burnett anticipated ‘substantially increased volumes of work in the next year and beyond’ for criminal lawyers due to plans to recruit more police officers and prosecutors. Family law work was growing before COVID-19―private and public cases increased by 22% and 17%, respectively, on the previous October. Both county court and High Court civil work was ‘expected to grow’ in terms of volume, he predicted.
‘In many respects, Brexit will lead to increased work,’ he said.
‘In addition, the economic impacts of COVID will inevitably lead to increased volumes of work.’ In the tribunals it was ‘inevitable’ that employment tribunal cases would ‘increase significantly in the near and medium-term future with the current backlogs already at an unsustainable position,’ he said.
He also warned there could be a shortage of District Judges, who undertake much of the work in the civil and family courts.
‘In recent years the Judicial Appointments Commission has been unable to recommend as many new District Judges as were needed,’ he said.
‘I hope that the competition underway will go some way to reversing that trend. But appointments will not come through until well into next year. In the meantime, deputy District Judges, both part time practitioners and retired District Judges, are increasingly being deployed to cope with the work.
‘Last year 350 or so deputy District Judges were appointed and this year well over 100, who are still being trained. Judicial resources could be an issue in Family and Civil at least until the new deputies and the new District Judges come on stream.’
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