Formal Advice for misconduct has been issued to district judge in light of delayed judgements …

As we know there is the very pressing issue of a large backlog within the criminal justice system. The Crown Court specifically is currently exceeding a backlog of 79,000 cases, resulting in serious cases waiting to be heard until 2029/2030.

To attempt to tackle this problem there has been mention of introducing judge-only trials for smaller, less serious cases. Although backed by Prime Minister Kier Starmer, there is a sense of controversy surrounding this idea. Many barristers and legal professionals feel as though having a jury within the court system is an essential component to a fair trial, particularly for diversity as mentioned by Manisha Knights, Solicitor Advocate with MK Law*

A recent development in this area is how the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office deal with such a delay in the decision-making by judges. District Judge Stephen Leake has been issued with formal advice for misconduct as he has provided late judgements on five different occasions. Leake explained that there had been an exceptional workload alongside personal circumstances that played a part in the delays in judgements. However, this caused a delay in around 11 months and 10 months for two of the incidents, which can be detrimental considering the already extreme delays in just getting to trial. The Investigations Office declared that he should have looked for support from the judges around him.

Although, there is a particularly urgent need for a decision to be made to improve the backlog of the court system, it is encouraging to see that where there may be delays arising with particular judges and the decisions they are making, they are being picked up on and the delays do have consequences.

*https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2m808kml0o