Why isn’t civil justice a bigger election issue?

Let’s be honest, those of us who care about the justice system are always guilty of a little naivety when it comes to politics.

Much as we might want it (and could make a convincing economic argument), any political party gunning for votes in the general election is not going to nail its colours to the justice mast.

Legal aid is simply not a hot enough topic among voters for the parties to bother with – and some may even fear the backlash from promising to line lawyers’ pockets further.

But for all that justice issues are the bridesmaid in this interminable election campaign, it is genuinely baffling why the state of the county court is still sidelined.

This is not a niche issue. It is not toxic and likely to incur the wrath of the Mail leader writers. It is not even something that can be framed as pro-lawyer.

It is a public service which is under-funded and foundering, but which affects swaths of the electorate. Last year alone there were 1.7m county court claims – up 11% from 2022.

To put that into context against other issues leading the political debate, it is three times more than the number of children who go to private school and 57 times more than the number of people arriving in the UK last year on small boats.

The state of our county courts has a direct and profound effect on the daily lives of millions of people. It is not just worthy to include it in manifestos but a potential vote-winner.

Yet neither of the two main parties has mentioned civil justice, choosing – if they were to touch on legal matters at all – to address the criminal courts backlog (the Lib Dems did make commitments on more legal aid funding and tackling the backlog of family court cases). The criminal backlog is a priority, of course, but masks the fact that county court justice has come to a virtual standstill. The Law Society revealed last week that small claims are taking more than a year to reach trial in England and Wales, as the courts (those that remain from the 2010s purge) battle with crumbling conditions.

For more complex, higher value cases, it now takes more than a year and a half (80 weeks) to reach trial. These numbers are consistently getting worse.

The irony of the election being called now is that it put the skids on the justice committee’s long overdue analysis of civil justice, which had already heard from lawyers saying what a mess it was. That discussion was effectively for nought as Sunak dissolved parliament and its unfinished work.

The fact that we can’t see issues with the county court as visibly as those in the health service does not mean they are not happening. Thousands of people every day are being denied their rights and the chance to move on with their lives by delays and adjournments. For politicians to largely ignore the issue is not just letting them down but missing a possible chance to move the dial on the election campaign.