The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published the civil county court statistics for the July to September quarter, and the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) is not the least bit pleased.
According to the newly released civil justice data, there were 72,000 claims defended and 13,000 that went to trial in the three-month span. Compared to the same quarter in 2019, or prior to COVID-19, the latest number of defended claims is 8% lower; those that went to trial, down 24%.
Compared to the same quarter last year, the Q3 2021 figure for claims defended represents a 17% increase. The number of claims that went to trial, compared to the same period in 2020, rose by 19%.
Meanwhile, the MoJ noted: “The mean time taken for small claims and multi/fast track claims to go to trial was 50.7 weeks and 70.6 weeks, 12.6 weeks longer and 11.3 weeks longer than the same period in 2019, respectively. These measures were also 1.9 weeks and 8.4 weeks longer for the same quarter in 2020, respectively.”
From 2019, judgements declined by 17%; enforcement applications, down 41%; and enforcement orders, 37% lower. Warrants issued also fell from the pre-pandemic baseline, by 38%.
Commenting on the numbers, ACSO executive director Matthew Maxwell Scott asserted: “The prospect of waiting well over a year to hear your case in court is a hammer blow for civil justice, and the latest figures, which show delays of just under a year for small claims cases and nearly 18 months for multi/fast track cases, is unacceptable.
“That is around three months longer than the equivalent period in 2019, meaning ministers cannot simply blame the pandemic, as court delays had already reached a tipping point before COVID. The Justice Secretary must give urgent attention to reducing court delays, not least because most people who go to law use the civil courts and it is not right that they are currently being denied access to justice.”
Maxwell Scott also pointed to the role that technology can play, particularly in the areas of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and other forms of mediation.
The ACSO official said: “Following early testing of ADR, the evidence is that it settles cases satisfactorily in days rather than months. We urge ministers to speed up their current investigation into dispute resolution and give the public some confidence that the government is taking the long-running scandal of civil court delays more seriously.”
