Why do trials for open and shut cases take so long? - Yorkshire Post Letters

The recent terrible case against a man who deliberately drove a car into a crowd of Liverpool supporters was thankfully cut short when he pleaded guilty to all charges.

This was surely an open and shut case where a large number of people had witnessed the act and the defendant clearly did not have a leg to stand on, as was evidenced by his guilty plea.

Okay thus far. But we are then told that the case was scheduled to last for four weeks. Why on earth should an open and shut case like this last for more than a morning? It suggests to me that our court proceedings need a major overhaul.

There seems to be a great reluctance to question the judicial system. I believe that it requires root and branch reform. The Post Office scandal is a case in point. The courts managed to come up with the wrong answer over 900 times. Surely alarm bells should have been ringing after a few cases had convicted sub-post masters, a group of people selected for their track record of honesty?

There is a huge backlog of cases in the courts resulting in the situation that "justice delayed is justice denied". A truncating of the judicial progress is clearly needed and would result in more just results. The present delays of years to bring cases to court is clearly unacceptable.