THE president of the Law Society has voiced concerns over ongoing legal delays at Hampshire crown courts.

Lubna Shuja expressed her concerns over the increasing number of delays in criminal courts, stating that the number of cases outstanding in the crown courts has reached a record high.

Speaking to the Hampshire Chronicle, Mrs Shuja said: “The current outstanding backlog of cases in the crown courts is over 62,400 across England and Wales.”

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She added that Southampton Crown Court has 368 outstanding cases from October to December 2022, an increase of 12 per cent when compared to the same period in 2021, while Winchester crown court the outstanding cases at the end of October 2022 were 287, an increase of 252 cases when compared to the previous quarter.

Mrs Shuja said that the backlog has been caused by issues with cuts to criminal legal aid, saying: “We have got solicitors who deal with criminal legal aid leaving the profession in droves.

“And the reason for that is because there has been no substantial increase in the rates for criminal legal aid for almost 20 years. So, for those solicitors, the rates have not increased at all, they just can’t afford to live on it anymore. What we’ve found in 2012 there were just over 1,800 firms and if you look at the figures 12 years later, that’s gone down to just over 900, so it’s literally halved.

“And what that means is that there are few solicitors to deal with cases.”

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Mrs Shuja said that the backlogs were also being caused by issues with the increasing digitization of the court process, with solicitors having issues with technology not working properly or at all, as well as shortages of judges and other court staff. She also said that many courts are not operating at full capacity due to poor maintenance of the court estates.

To correct the issues, Mrs Shuja said that the government needs to implement a 50 per cent increase in criminal aid rates which was suggested by Lord Bellamy in 2019.

She added: “The government needs to invest in maintaining the court estate. They’ve got to repair the courts, they’ve got to repair the broken heating systems, the air conditioning, the toilets, so that all of the courts are operating at maximum capacity.

“They need to invest more money in court staff, so they’ve got enough staff to deal with all of the backlogs, and they’ve got to appoint more judges to deal with the cases as well.”