And the #LALY25 winner for Criminal Defence is Manisha Knights MK Law Solicitors
mk-law.co.uk/team-members...
Not only do we have 1/5 of courts not sitting at a time of record backlogs, but for the past three days the Crown Court Digital Case System - the engine on which the whole system runs - has been broken.
There is also a cost to the public purse as these trial cases are being fully prepared for trial under legal aid orders at the higher fixed fee rate. Perhaps reintroducing a PTR for these cases where they crack out before a trial slot would be a solution? #Thursdaymusings
My last 3 DV magistrates' court trial cases have all ended on the day of trial with the CPS offering no evidence owing to witnesses not attending having made withdrawal statements weeks ago. Perhaps a need to reassess the balance between protecting DV victims and not adding to the ongoing backlog?
Is this an issue with delay in police providing to CPS, a conscious policy decision or yet another symptom of the ongoing broken criminal justice system where a CPS lawyer just doesn't have capacity to look at the case until the night before? Is anybody looking at the stats on this?
Current biggest bugbear is not being told about withdrawal statements until the day of trial when they were made months ago. Surely any "policy" to hold these back from the defence until the last minute is contrary to ongoing statutory disclosure duties? Also the cause of a lot of wasted trial slots
Same.
Trials are being adjourned from 2024 to 2026 at one London court with capacity issues.
Imagine getting the call to be told your trial (on either side of the courtroom) was being delayed.
It won’t start on time.
Not by 2 hours. Or days. Not by 2 weeks. Or months.
But 2 years.
Nothing like a broken Crown Court Digital Case System when we've all been forced to go paperless...another level of "broken" to add to the ongoing bin fire previously known as the Criminal Justice System. PS clearing the cookies doesn't work!
A good start to the day. A case from 2014 gets adjourned for the 8th time, to 2026. In other news, the digital system that we all use to access cases, is, for the second day running, down.
If you haven’t noticed yet the Criminal Justice System in the UK is broken. In every direction.
