The lord chief justice has called for family and criminal cases to be shortened.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor’s dinner for the judiciary last week, Sir Igor Judge said the processes for resolving family and criminal cases need to be improved to deliver justice, particularly at a time of financial crisis and when the demands on the courts are increasing.

He said the judiciary would not ignore ‘national fiscal realities’ and must be prepared to question all of its processes, ‘including some very long standing ones’, to safeguard the administration of justice.

Judge said the judiciary was considering whether the traditional adversarial system was still the best way of enabling judges to determine cases involving the future of children.

He said Crown court cases should be reduced in length, with judges setting strict timetables and advocates confined to arguing the ‘points that matter rather than fringe points’. He said time cannot continue to be treated as an ‘unlimited resource’.

‘What I am saying is that we can no longer afford the luxury of allowing the parties in criminal and family cases, both sides of which are largely supported from public funds, to dictate the length of the case,’ said Judge.

The lord chief justice added that while the judiciary has no control over legal aid, it could question whether the legal aid system was counterproductive to an efficient trial system.

‘It seems to some of us that the best rewards are not necessarily received by the most efficient providers,’ he said.

Judge also called for the abolition of so-called Henry VIII clauses, which give ministers power to bypass parliament to amend or repeal legislation.

He said the ‘proliferation’ of such clauses was a ‘pernicious habit’ and they should be ‘confined to the dustbin of history’.