All the media attention has recently been on threats to jury trials, not on the implications of these reforms for magistrates’ courts. But government proposals to blitz the Crown Court backlog may have a backfire effect on the magistrates’ courts. The government wants to increase the sentencing powers of magistrates and district judges so that they can sentence someone to a prison sentence of 18 months for one offence – currently they cannot exceed twelve months. This will increase the workload of the magistrates’ court unless more cases are diverted from court (for which there are no concrete proposals). So the magistrates’ court backlog, already at a record high, will just get bigger. 

Our new report illustrates why there is a significant magistrates’ court backlog. It is based on thousands of observations by courtwatchers. These were volunteers recruited by us to observe magistrates’ court hearings in London. One of courtwatchers’ strongest impressions is of inefficiency in the court. “This court system is truly semi organised chaos, with long periods of people sitting around waiting, incomplete lists, courts seem to swap defendants between them. It’s a mish mash of paper and computer based stuff. It’s a miracle anything ever gets completed in them.” 

The inefficiency of the courts was not just a resource issue. It badly affected witnesses, defendants and the credibility of the system. “’It was a long time ago’ could’ve been the headline for this trial… The fact that the defendant ‘did not recall’ being told that the individual he allegedly assaulted was a police officer is somewhat unsurprising in light of this fact [incident was three years ago], highlighting the detrimental impact delays have on fair justice processes.” 

Courtwatchers did not want speed for speed’s sake. But they identified many ways of speeding processes up to the benefit of all. One of them was in getting defendants to court. A third of all the court hearings observed resulted in a delay or adjournment. Of these one in five were due to the defendant not appearing on time or at all. In the Crown Court, long delays are caused by prisoner transport – defendants in prison not being brought to court in time. This is a problem in magistrates’ courts but not as frequent as defendants not turning up under their own steam. Defendants are given information about their court hearing either in person or by post. There is many a slip twixt cup and lip. For a start, many letters go astray or are lost by the recipient. In one case a defendant had been arrested and detained in police custody overnight because he had not turned up for his scheduled court hearing. “The defendant explained that he had not known that he had been summoned to court. He was cautioned on the road at the time of the offence and has had no communication about it since…The lead magistrate asked the court staff to check the defendants address in the system and found that it had been recorded incorrectly as ‘Flat 2’ rather than ‘Flat 1’, hence he had not received any letters because they had been sent to the wrong address.” 

The late arrival of defendants from custody caused significant delays. Most prisoners came from police custody. Given the custody suites were only a few miles from the courts, these delays are difficult to fathom: “Serco were responsible for bringing 10 prisoners from Acton police station [to Ealing magistrates – 2 mile journey] but they were delayed and it seems this is an ongoing problem…. We were waiting for 2 hours… [Later] It felt all so rushed maybe because of delays.” Extricating defendants from a Central London prison was difficult too: “Pentonville failed to produce [the defendant] for this trial despite several requests. The bench therefore adjourned the hearing while contact was attempted with Pentonville. After they left, the legal advisor and both CPS and defence lawyer agreed it was ‘really bad and getting worse, the way Pentonville ignore emails from the court or sometimes say a defendant has refused to appear when it’s known that they’ve been keen to proceed.’”

Our observers suggested that the authorities should work out why so many defendants failed to appear and address the root causes. Courts could also send text or email reminders as the NHS does. Read these and more pragmatic suggestions on how to increase efficiency in the magistrates’ courts in our new report.