Dundee Sheriff Court is “not fit for purpose” and will not be able to cope with an influx of extra business when Cupar Sheriff Court closes, a senior city lawyer has claimed.
The Dundee Bar Association’s vice-president, solicitor George Donnelly, says court users, including sheriffs, witnesses and jurors are all being inconvenienced by the building’s shortcomings.
Mr Donnelly’s claims come after almost a week of postponements for a jury trial which was due to start last Monday.
It finally got under way on Thursday afternoon, after witnesses and potential jurors were kept waiting for hours each day for a start to the proceedings.
The hold-up was due to a lack of court space as another jury trial was running at the same time, along with the final High Court sitting in Dundee, which concluded on Wednesday.
Those plus the normal court business of summary trials, remand, intermediate diet and custody courts also running on a daily basis, meant there was no opportunity for the trial to realistically start until the High Court assize ended.
As a result, many witnesses, including a large number of police officers, were left standing in corridors for almost four days due to the lack of space in witness rooms.
One witness said a group of police officers were even asked to clear the corridor by a bar officer, who was then unable to find anywhere for them to go.
The Dundee Bar Association say this is a sign of things to come, when the business from Cupar Sheriff Court comes to Dundee when the Fife building is shut under the Scottish Courts Service closure programme next year.
Mr Donnelly said: “Court timetables proceed on the basis that everything is not going to proceed due to pleas and/or motions to adjourn, and on those not infrequent occasions when they do proceed, then an insurmountable bottleneck is created which results in trials, etc, having to be delayed, to the inconvenience of all court users, from sheriffs to witnesses.
“It’s been a long-standing complaint of the local bar, even before the news of the transfer of business, that this building was not fit for purpose and it will be even less fit when the business is transferred.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Courts Service responded: “The Scottish Court Service works closely with its justice partners when scheduling trials.
“Occasionally, trials can take longer to conclude than anticipated. If this occurs, it can mean other cases require to be adjourned and dealt with later in the trial sitting.
“This was the final week of High Court business calling at the Court in Dundee.
“This programme change will provide further flexibility at the court and allow ample capacity to accommodate business when cases are moved there from Cupar next year.”