Dear readers — today's story gets inside two big Birmingham buildings that few of us (if we are lucky) have to spend much time in: Birmingham Crown Court and Birmingham Magistrate's Court. Here, rising numbers of cases and a dwindling supply of solicitors mean the local legal system is more pressured than ever.
While the government has promised to bring in 'swift courts' to break the backlog, not everyone agrees this will solve the problem — Harpreet Sandhu KC told The Dispatch the plans are "for the birds". Ethan Penny spent the day behind the doors of the creaking courtrooms to get a closer look at the situation. Before that, your Brum in Brief.
Brum in Brief
🚂 New public realm plans for HS2 Curzon Street station have been approved, promising “a world-class station and landmark destination in Birmingham". The glow-up includes two large paved squares, a garden and a promenade for parading. (BBC)
🚦 Plans have been submitted to ease traffic at New Hell cemetery in Sutton Coldfield, where visitors and residents often clash due to gridlock. Currently, cars enter and exit through the same way with reports of some “blasting out music” near mourners. (Birmingham Mail)
🌈 Birmingham Pride is fast approaching and there's been a change to the parade due to works on New Street. Southside District has revealed the new route here.
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It’s 10am on a Tuesday, and Birmingham Crown Court is yawning into gear. A metal detector whistles over watches and belts as people inch through the security queue. Barristers, fixing their wigs and gowns in the foyer, hunch over last-gasp meetings with clients in the room’s darker corners.
The restaurant in the court is long closed. Signs for the elusive “press suite” point down a wood-panelled corridor to the witness services room. Two pieces of green card have been stuck to the door window and are failing to keep the witnesses inside from view.
The feedback board is mottled with sun-faded rectangles where laminated comments have been pinned up for too long. One reads: “I sat around for ages waiting to be called on.” Here, problems tend to linger.
The national backlog of crown court cases is at a record high and delays are ravaging the system. Justice has become grindingly slow.
In Court 1, a religious instructor will face charges of the sexual assault of a child. By the 10:15am scheduled start, barristers are rushing to locate the defendant among his family in the foyer. The clerk is struggling to set up a call with a barrister joining virtually, who is grumbling five seconds behind the courtroom. A Crown Prosecution Service representative timidly reveals to a barrister that his files have been left in the Chambers Office, and the clerk mistakes a solicitor for the defendant. “God forbid!” he responds.
The defendant shuffles from the foyer into the dock. Things look ready to begin. Then the judge receives a call. The Pashto interpreter has been double-booked, and he’s needed upstairs.
This is one of more than 2,500 open cases at Birmingham Crown Court, a figure that has doubled since 2019, and a sluggish start is hardly rare. Over in Court 3, the digital screens are malfunctioning, and a bail hearing is running over. When the murder trial gets started an hour late, the digital screens flicker off again, and jurors are handed vast plastic binders of printed CCTV evidence to be walked through by the prosecutor.
Here in the West Midlands, the court backlog is piling up. Together with Wolverhampton, the number of cases entering the crown court has risen by 40% in three years. This sits 10 percentage points ahead of the national trend. Cases are being delayed until 2029, and barristers are warning of collapse.
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