an estimate of cases are waiting disposals before the crown court have risen from 37,000 to 54,000. Never the less we are pleased to say that cases of all sorts and types are now beginning to progress through the crown court system.
One of the main concerns surrounded long cases with defendants in custody. In 2021 we have already dealt with a five week multi-handed murder trial, a Nottingham drugs and guns trial thats now into its third month and a multi-handed Leicester trial with huge amounts of scientific and forensic material, that commenced on the 4th January and wont be finishing until after easter. A good indictation then that these sorts of cases are now up and running,
At the other end of the scale appeals against conviction and sentence which had been backed up for many many months have recently been targeted for immediate action. a couple of weeks ago in Nottingham Crown Court there were three court rooms dealing with a broad array of appeals all on the same day. Crown court are regularly having lay magistrates sit with judges, one or two days a week to help clear the accumulated work
The arrival in the east midlands of our first Nightingale court and the use of formal magistrates court facilities to handle crown court trials should mean that we are potentially running a greater number of courts a day than we were in the 6 months prior to the pandemic.
This doesn't mean that the backlog is a thing of the past! indeed far from it! But there is a good indication that without working evenings and weekends to the disquiet of all the courts are doing their level best to get things a back on an even keel.