Lord Chief Justice speaks of concern over outstanding caseloads in courts
The Lord Chief Justice has asked the government to provide more funding for the court system. He noted the outstanding caseload was already unacceptable even before the pandemic and associated lockdowns.
The hope is to be able to deal with the massive backlog of cases in the courts and tribunals system, including the family courts. Sadly, the courts were already under tremendous strain prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the onset of lockdown has been yet another pressure. There is concern that more help is needed for the system to act fairly and to manage the huge backlog fairly and lawfully.
The Law Gazette reported that Lord Burnett of Maldon called for a ‘realistic assessment’ of the current and future workloads when deciding the budget requirements of HM Courts & Tribunals Service.
You can read more about the issue at The Law Gazette, in this article dated 4th November.
Burnett did note the positives which had been achieved, saying that while in some areas remote hearings have proved unsuitable, for many other areas the technology has been effective. He noted the widespread benefits to be gained from modernisation, saying the reform and modernisation programme must be seen to its conclusion.