The cross-party Justice Committee published a devastating report this week, 'Work of the county court', highlighting the ‘unacceptable and increasing delays across nearly all types of claims. Ministry of Justice statistics for the quarter to March 2025 show an average wait of almost 50 weeks from issue to trial for small claims, and nearly 75 weeks for fast, intermediate and multi-track claims.
Rats, flies, rotting pigeons and leaky roofs featured among a list of building hazards encountered by judges, lawyers and other court users. At South Shields the courtroom ceiling collapsed, while at Leeds the heating was jammed on during the heatwave of 2022.
The MPs criticised the decade-long Reform modernisation programme which ‘under-delivered’, resulting in a multitude of incompatible systems and outdated paper-based processes. They expressed specific concern about the cost and delays caused by the need to lug heavy paper files around the country. They recommended, instead, that a single case management system be introduced and future digital reforms be co-designed with users and rolled out only when proven reliable.
Block listing, where multiple cases are scheduled for a specific time slot, also came under fire for leaving court users waiting around for their case to be called, out of pocket for their day’s earnings while incurring travel and legal expenses. The committee recommended litigants be able to recover their legal, travel and subsistence costs if their case is listed but not heard.
It is difficult to contact the individual courts—some did not answer their phones while others could only have messages passed to them through a central inquiry line. Callers were sometimes asked to put their question in an email and warned it could be 10-12 weeks before the email is opened. The committee recommended there be a clear point of contact and allocated claims handlers.
Andy Slaughter MP, the committee’s chair, said the county court was ‘beset by unacceptable delays, recruitment and retention issues across frontline staff and the judiciary, and a complex “patchwork” of paper-based and digital systems… It is not tenable to continue without fundamental reform’.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: ‘If the government properly funded our courts and those who work in them, thousands of people would be freed from the legal limbo caused by long waits.’
