Anyone who has had recent experience of the criminal justice system will be well aware of the huge backlogs and delays experienced when waiting for criminal trials to come to Court.
Since the pandemic, the Courts have experienced a huge backlog of 53,318 cases in the Crown Court. If Courts cannot keep cases moving during this third lockdown then will our criminal justice system be on the brink of collapse and unable to ultimately to deliver justice?
We are currently in the nations third national lockdown since the start of the pandemic. This means all non-essential businesses and services must remain closed until further notice but the Criminal Justice System is deemed essential and Courts are still open. Consequently, defendants, witnesses, jurors and legal professionals are permitted to attend Court under the regulations.
The Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett of Maldon has expressed to judges that ‘The courts and tribunals must continue to function’ and others have sought to persuade the legal profession that the Courts are Covid secure. Many legal professionals will argue that this is not necessarily the case. However, despite the Courts being able to remain open since the pandemic they have not been able to run at the capacity needed to keep up with current demands, let alone clearing the backlog which is ever increasing. We are already instructed by clients whose criminal trials are not listed until the middle of 2022 and some trials of a complex nature even being listed for 2023!
The impact of these delays will include more defendants experiencing long periods in custody on remand whilst potentially maintaining their innocence. This will of course only lead to another crisis of overpopulated prisons. Furthermore, when a matter finally reaches Court, the defendants and witnesses’ ability to give evidence will be affected by the passage of time which will without question diminish their memory of events.
The suggestion within CPS guidance on dealing with the pandemic is that cases should be reviewed to assess whether or not it is still in the public interest to prosecute the case or is there an alternative solution to get the matter resolved. Therefore, these ongoing delays offer a genuine opportunity for defendants to make representations to the CPS to seek to persuade them not to pursue a prosecution.