A murder trial was adjourned for three days because the heating was broken, the Law Society's deputy vice-president has told MPs. Richard Atkinson, a managing partner at Tuckers Solicitors, was giving evidence on the state of the justice system to the House of Commons home affairs select committee yesterday.
He said: ‘What we know is there are now just about 5,000 cases outstanding that have been waiting two years or more for trial. We know that the buildings are in a terrible state.’
In a shocking report published by the Law Society last December, hundreds of solicitors said they experienced delays in cases being heard due to the state of the court within the past 12 months.
Atkinson told the committee: ‘A case that I had, which concluded only a couple of weeks ago, was a multi-handed number of defendants in a murder trial. Obviously huge resources. And for three days in that trial it could not sit because the heating wasn’t working. I’ve been made aware of a case where two defendants were to be sentenced for serious matters but couldn’t be because the judge was told the cells were closed because the heating wasn’t working. So the physical state of the estate is contributing to delay.
'The delays are a problem and then you have the issues around personnel involved,' Atkinson added. As well as insufficient number of judges, there was an ‘enormous crisis’ facing defence solicitors.
Atkinson said: ‘I’ve already mentioned how, in the last five years, we’ve lost over 1,200 duty solicitors. The number of firms is collapsing. The number of young people coming forward is tiny… The system is creaking in all aspects and it’s from decades of underfunding.’
Criminal Bar Association chair Kirsty Brimelow KC told the committee that a major reason behind prosecutions being diminished was due to an insufficient number of prosecutors. In the 15 months up to 30 September 2022, 364 cases were adjourned on the day because no prosecution advocate could be found. One of Brimelow's colleagues has already had three rape cases in 2023 adjourned until the end of the year.
Brimelow said: ‘The cases come to court, and I hear about victims’ voices being heard, but heard where? Because there’s no justice delivered because there’s no funding for the prosecution to actually prosecute the cases.’
Where trials do go ahead, ‘those trials are greatly diminished, the quality of the evidence is greatly diminished, because you have a complainant who is saying “I can’t remember, I can’t remember two, three years ago". The jury has to decide on that evidence. So the delays are undermining the whole prosecution case all the way through.’
Brimelow said the government needed to get on with ensuring prosecutors have parity on fees since the government negotiated a revised deal with the CBA to suspend its strike over legal aid funding.
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