Labour’s band-aid won’t save the justice system from collapse
When the buildings designed to deliver justice are infested with rats, it is no surprise that the system itself is rotting from the inside out, writes Maria Ward-Brennan.
The terrible state of the justice system is by now well understood, but with the government’s most controversial plan to relive the pressure now partially scrapped, the crisis is only deepening.
In recent days, Andy Burnham’s secretary of state for justice, Alex Norris, said, “This government inherited criminal courts on the brink of collapse, with victims waiting years for their day in court.” He is correct. The justice system has been in decline for years, but Labour have been in power for over two years, and instead of cases dropping, they hit a record-high backlog just weeks ago.
Instead, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been fighting the fallout from the plans announced by David Lammy, justice secretary under Keir Starmer, who proposed dropping all jury trials unless in murder, rape or manslaughter cases. When this came to light nearly a year ago, it caused an almighty row and pushback from the public and those that work in the system.
The government relied on an independent review by former judge Sir Brian Leveson, who proposed removing jury trials for “either-way” offences and shifting more choices to magistrates. At the time, Sarah Sackman MP, a former barrister, said justice delayed is justice not served, and noted major criminal cases, such as rape, are not getting court dates until 2029 or 2030, prompting victims to pull out.
But the plan was controversial for the government. The outcry led the MoJ to issue an alert on Sunday, revealing the government is making a slight u-turn on its plan to drop jury trials; instead, it will be dropped only for certain fraud and financial proceedings.
The Courts and Tribunals Bill returns to the House of Commons on 13 October, where the changes will be made.
However, even this slight U-turn has not settled the outcry, as legal bodies highlight the sheer volume, seriousness, and complexity of cases the MoJ seems will to push to a judge-only system or magistrates court.
Andrew Thomas KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) said: “Our volunteer magistrates do an excellent job but they are completely unequipped to try complex, multi-day trials. What makes it worse is that it is far more difficult to get Legal Aid in the Magistrates’ Courts, and people facing long sentences of imprisonment will end up representing themselves.”
The court will now hear from the First Rodent
The MoJ is between a rock and a hard place.
UK public spending is heavily dominated by health, welfare, and education, while the department that oversees justice gets a mid-sized budget of around £15bn – and if it got a big surge in funding tomorrow, the broken system would swallow it up like an endless pit.
A new report by the Bar Council revealed that just one in five barristers believe the public has acceptable access to justice, with three-quarters (74 per cent) of those who took a stance explicitly stating the system is failing the public.
Barristers reported working in courts that lack basic human necessities like working toilets and drinking water, with one barrister reporting rats in the robing room. As a result, poor working conditions and low pay are driving lawyers away from criminal law, with practitioners warning that overworked staff are “chasing their tails constantly.”
Bar Council Chair Kirsty Brimelow KC said, “The justice system should be treated like a vital public service – like schools and hospitals… Far too long, the justice system has only been functioning because it has been propped up by the goodwill of those who work within it. Those people are now weary, stressed and depleted.”
As I mentioned in my column in the lead-up to the 2024 general election, the crippled justice system should be the main talking point in the country, but it still lacks the attention it deserves. For those not battling inside the system, it is out of sight and out of mine. The government needs to start thinking outside the box in order to start bringing those backlogs down and making court improvements before the last thread that is holding the entire system together snaps.
‘Beyond The Billable’ is a weekly column focused on the professional services industry.