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In the tsunami of post-2010 cuts to the Ministry of Justice, half the crown courts and magistrates courts were closed down and sold off. The government says most people can reach a court within a six-hour round trip, but unsurprisingly many are failing to attend, so those showing up find cases postponed and themselves obliged to make that journey again. Added to the loss of courtrooms is an acute shortage of judges, recorders, clerks, staff and duty solicitors following £1bn in legal aid cuts.
âYour letter made a mistake,â complained one client to Richard Atkinson, a solicitor in Maidstone, Kent, last week. âYou put my trial date as October 2022. You meant 2021?â No, replied Atkinson, who is also a member of the Law Societyâs criminal justice committee: that was the date â it was set back five years after his client was arrested for fraud in 2017, purely due to lack of a crown court slot. âTheyâre already listing cases for 2023,â Atkin