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In 2014-15 the Crown Prosecution Service spent £21.5m on preparing cases that were not heard in court. Of this, £5.5m related to cases that collapsed due to ‘prosecution reasons’, including non-attendance of prosecution witnesses and incomplete case files. The National Audit Office’s Efficiency in the criminal justice system report, published in March, also revealed that backlogs in the Crown Court increased by 34% between March 2013 and September 2015, and waiting time for a Crown Court hearing increased from 99 days to 134 over the same period.
In 2014-15 the Crown Prosecution Service spent £21.5m on preparing cases that were not heard in court. Of this, £5.5m related to cases that collapsed due to ‘prosecution reasons’, including non-attendance of prosecution witnesses and incomplete case files. The National Audit Office’s Efficiency in the criminal justice system report, published in March, also revealed that backlogs in the Crown Court increased by 34% between March 2013 and September 2015, and waiting time for a Crown Court hearing increased from 99 days to 134 over the same period.
The new Bar Council earnings report presents a collective challenge for the self-employed Bar, remote hearings are changing and Bar Conference is back next month
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Paul Magrath of ICLR recalls the chequered history of law reporting prior to the 1865 establishment of a Council of Law Reporting
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By Professor Jo Delahunty KC, Kate Brunner KC and Dr Ann Olivarius KC (Hon) OBE
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From Parliamentary standards to barrister standards – Kathryn Stone OBE, Chair of the Bar’s regulator, talks to Anthony Inglese CB about roots, respect and reviews
Jessica Foster reviews State Trials and Error – fundraising and showcasing the musical and theatrical talent within the legal profession
Alex Goodman KC on why our electoral laws need an urgent upgrade – they were not designed to address the corruption of popular opinion by AI and deepfakes