The president of The Law Society has spoken out about Southampton's court backlog during a recent visit to Hampshire. 

Nick Emmerson said investment is needed in the legal system to clear the current waiting list whilst at Trethowans Solicitors in Hedge End last week.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Echo, he said there were 486 outstanding cases at Southampton Crown Court between October and December 2023 according to the latest figures.

He added that across the country there are 68,000 outstanding crown court cases and 380,000 outstanding cases in the magistrates' courts.

READ MORE: Justice 'confidence' fears as cases backup at Southampton court

Mr Emmerson said: “When you have a crisis in the justice system, which is what we have, most of it to do with a lack of funding, we have real problems.

“It affects every courtroom and it’s not just the fact that the courts are crumbling in some respects, there’s also a lack of staff and of course, a lack of lawyers - both barristers and solicitors - and a lot of that in the criminal legal sector is to do with the difficulties with criminal legal aid.

“They’re going to have to start releasing prisoners from what we hear because prisons are full.

“So you’ve got full prisons on the one hand, you’ve got the backlog in the middle and the lack of staff, lack of lawyers, lack of judges as well, and then at this other end of this system you’ve got commitments to increase the police.

“The last thing we need in the criminal justice system is more criminals. If we can’t process them, if we can’t push them through and don’t have anywhere to out them in the end, what does that say about us?

“The system isn’t working, we’re not processing criminals. They’re in a queue. Yes there was a backlog from Covid but we’ve not cleared those backlogs and that’s why we’re in this emergency situation.”

READ MORE: Southampton Crown Court facing a backlog of cases

Asked about the situation in Southampton compared to the rest of the UK, the Law Society president said: “It’s the same or slightly worse I think.”

Mr Emmerson visited the area to speak to members of the Law Society about ongoing issues across the profession and claimed one of the main issues is criminal legal aid.

He said cuts to the system have meant fewer legal aid provisions, resulting in a drop in the amount of practising solicitors because of a reduction in financial incentives.

The president added: “The fact that just one crown court in Southampton has 486 outstanding cases, I mean how many days in the year are you going to sit, how many courtrooms do you have?

“When are these backlogs going to be cleared? Are they ever going to be cleared?

“Are we always going to be living in a state of permanent backlog?”

The visit came after similar trips to Dorset and Cornwall over the last week.