Court league tables to be published
League tables of court delays and payment incentives for lawyers to ensure cases are ready to go to trial on time will encourage best practice in the court system, the new Lord Chancellor has said.
The Home Secretary and the head of the Constitutional Affairs department say they are determined to drive down the costs of wasted days that slow the progress of court cases.
They propose fixing court dates more closely and only paying lawyers when cases are ready to go to trial.
Pilot schemes in Bedfordshire and Essex over the last few months have reportedly proven successful and the Government now hopes to spread the scheme nationally.
Explaining the initiative, the Lord Chancellor said that the various agencies across the criminal justice system did not ‘work closely enough together’ at the present time, which in turn was leading to delays.
‘People should know how well the system is performing in their area, and that is why we are going to produce these tables’.
‘For example, over half of witnesses called to give evidence don’t give evidence on the day that they are called because the case gets postponed or adjourned’, Lord Falconer remarked.
He also expressed hope that the new information would bring about the introduction of measures at the grassroots level ‘in order to try to drive up performance’.
The first set of performance tables is due to be published in October.
