Eighteen specialist courts are to open to help victims of domestic violence, the Ministry of Justice has announced. The new courts, in eastern England, East Midlands, London, the north-east, north-west, south-west, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside will take the total of specialist domestic violence courts to 122.

The government’s target is to open 128 such courts by 2011.

According to the MoJ, key features of the courts include:

  • trained and dedicated criminal justice staff with expertise in dealing with domestic violence, including specially trained magistrates;
  • cases clustered on a particular day to enable all agencies to focus their specialist resources; and
  • support and advice from independent domestic violence advisers.

Justice minister Bridget Prentice said: ‘These courts have been a real success and are central to the package of support we offer domestic violence victims. It is clear by the level of interest and the standard of assessments this year that there is still an appetite locally for the development of specialist courts.’

The government said the number of prosecutions has nearly doubled in the past four years and that 72.5% of cases now result in a successful prosecution.