For the first time, the regular quarterly court statistics published by the Government show the average duration of civil and family cases at every County Court as well as the duration of criminal cases at every Crown Court and local Magistrates’ Court Group. This will enable the public to see how quickly cases are handled at their local court, and to compare it to other courts across England and Wales.
The new timeliness statistics show that, from July to September last year, on average:
care proceedings took 55 weeks
hearings for small claims (under GB pound 5,000) in civil courts took place 30 weeks after the claim was originally made (the figure was 57 weeks for higher value cases which are dealt with by a different process)
criminal cases were completed 152 days after the offence.
Ministers have already committed to a series of reforms to speed up the justice process. Measures put forward include improved technology, more use of mediation to solve civil and family disputes and simplifying processes to reduce delays and frustration for victims and witnesses of crime.
Comprehensive reform programme underway
Courts minister Jonathan Djanogly explained: “The figures released today show that sometimes the court process can simply be too time-consuming. That is why we have a comprehensive reform programme underway. There are two ways we can solve this problem. Firstly, by giving more people the opportunity to take charge of resolving their own disputes through mediation rather than using lawyers and a judge. This can be quicker and less stressful for all parties, especially where children are involved.”
Djanogly continued: “Secondly, by improving technology, processes and ways of working in the civil, family and criminal justice systems. We will reduce the time it takes to get results. We have already made a key commitment that care proceedings will be completed by the courts within six months.”
The Government’s reform programme extends across the family, civil and criminal justice systems:
Criminal justice reforms
The Government has committed to reform and re-energise the criminal justice system at a national and local level in order to reconnect with victims and local communities. This includes:
abolishing unnecessary committal hearings for ‘either way’ crimes to help save thousands of hours of court time each year
publishing justice outcomes and police actions on the national crime mapping website, www.police.uk, so that people can see what happens next after crimes are committed on their streets (his data will be published from May)
introducing video technology in the court process, including ‘Live Links’, so that police can give evidence from their local police station and thus save unnecessary time waiting at court and travel time
working with a number of areas to test the approach of Neighbourhood Justice Panels to address low-level offending and anti-social behaviour
Family justice reforms
The Government-commissioned Family Justice Review was published by an independently chaired panel in 2011. It will form a key evidence base for reform of the family justice system. The Government has already committed to some of the document’s recommendations, including:
- the introduction of a six-month time limit for care cases to be completed so that the system provides the best service to those at the heart of the system – children
- an agreement with the panel’s strong focus on mediation for separating couples as a more practical and amicable alternative to court, especially for children (the Government will be increasing funding for this by two thirds to GB pound 25 million per annum)
The Government will publish its full response to the Family Justice Review shortly.
Civil justice reforms
In 2011 the Government published proposals for the first major overhaul of the civil justice system in 15 years. Among the wide-ranging measures in the consultation, the coalition proposed to:
- give thousands more people the opportunity to consider telephone-based mediation as a simpler, quicker way to resolve their differences rather than going to court (mediation can take about 5-6 weeks to arrange compared to 13-14 weeks for a court hearing)
- double the small claims limit from GB pound 5,000 to GB pound 10,000 so that, if a case does have to go to court, thousands more cases can be dealt with without more formal – and lengthy and expensive – legal preparation
- improve technology – court forms will be sent electronically to centralised 21st Century business centres for faster processing, in turn leaving county courts and judges to concentrate on people attending court on the day.
The next steps will be announced following the Government’s consultation.
The new data can be viewed on the Open Justice website. At this website people you also learn about how the justice system works, play the role of judge in mock trials and view information about your local area.