It's clear that when members of the public see the state of the criminal justice system up close, they are shocked.
We know this from the way that delays and inefficiencies in London’s magistrates’ courts have been laid bare in a draft report from ‘courtwatchers’ who took part in an innovative project by the charity Transform Justice.
Over six months from 5 February to 31 July, 175 Londoners - a third of whom had no previous experience of the criminal justice process - observed 2,335 hearings in the capital’s 15 magistrates’ courts.
They related that 37% of all hearings resulted in a delay or adjournment, adding to the stress of defendants, victims and witnesses and wasting a huge amount of time and money.
The causes won't surprise criminal law solicitors. Waiting for pre-sentence reports from probation (18%) and defendants (who were not in custody) not being present (17%) were the most common reasons for delays, followed by the court needing more information from probation services (12%).
Missing evidence (11%), missing defence lawyers (8%), defence lawyers not being ready (7%) and the lack of an interpreter (5%) came next.
Other delays were caused by problems with technology (4%), cases being moved to a different court (4%), defendants in prison not being brought to court on time (3%), the prosecution advocate not being present or ready (3%) and the previous case over-running (2%).
As the magistrates’ courts across England and Wales - which deal with over 90% of criminal cases - are grappling with a record backlog of 361, 027 cases, the courtwatchers made 18 breathtakingly simple recommendations.
These included improving communication between all parties and agencies and using a checklist to ensure that ‘everything and everyone is ready’ before a case is listed.
To increase the likelihood of the defendant attending, they suggested ensuring that postal requisitions had been received and reminding defendants of court dates using email, text or WhatsApp and giving them ‘better and more accessible’ information about their future court dates.
To enable defendants to have a fair trial and participate effectively in hearings, the courtwatchers suggest abolishing the legal aid means test for all those charged with an imprisonable offence, so that they are represented by a lawyer, and increasing the number of duty solicitors.
For those defendants who do not have a lawyer, the report recommends giving them more support, including by allowing them access to their court file online.
To reduce the number of people coming before the courts in the first place, they also suggests implementing the recommendation of Sir Brian Leveson in his review of the criminal courts, of diverting more cases from prosecution altogether.
Many of these obviously sensible and practical suggestions have been made by solicitors up and down the land for years.
The government is widely expected to accept and implement controversial proposals made by Leveson to remove the right to a jury trial from some defendants and create a new intermediate court in which cases are heard by a judge and two lay magistrates.
This reform would still require courtrooms and judges and it is questionable whether it will do anything to reduce the backlog of cases.
But surely, instead of going to the time and expense of reinventing the wheel by creating another court, which in all probability would also lack funds and staff, ministers would be better off giving the courtwatchers’ ideas a go.
Read Catherine Baksi's feature on criminal justice here
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