Magistrates’ courts earmarked for closure are considering legal action against the Ministry of Justice, the Gazette has learned.

The Magistrates Association (MA) has taken legal advice regarding a potential judicial review of the lord chancellor’s proposals for court closures.

The controversial plans, announced in December, include the closure of 93 magistrates’ courts in England and Wales.

An MA spokesman said the MoJ had presented the proposals as a rationalisation of the court estate to eliminate courts that lack facilities or are under-used.

But he said concerns had grown among local magistrates that some of the courts listed for closure were among those with the best facilities and the highest levels of use.

He said the MoJ had also ignored or misunderstood evidence submitted to it by interested parties during the consultation process, including the MA itself.

Although precluded by its Royal Charter from taking legal action, the association is considering setting up a company to bring an action in relation to more than a dozen courts, including those in Kingston upon Thames, Selby, Wisbech, Woking, Haywards Heath, Bridgewater, Lyndhurst and Barry.

The MA has taken advice from John Gould, senior partner at London firm Russell-Cooke. Gould said information had been gathered from individual magistrates’ courts, and problems identified with the decisions to close them.

He said three barristers, including a high-profile QC, have been lined up to write an opinion on the prospects of a judicial review. The next stage will be to write a pre-action protocol letter to the MoJ.

MA chairman John Thornhill said the association had always accepted that a number of courthouses were no longer sustainable on financial or other grounds.

But he added: ‘The MA believes the decisions [on closures] are driven purely by financial constraints without consideration of other important factors such as community needs and crime mapping.’

A MoJ spokeswoman said the government was committed to supporting local justice, and the closures would ultimately help modernise and improve the use of the courts.