The man in charge of British Columbia's justice system review agrees he may have the job of a contortionist worthy of master escape artist Harry Houdini.

By this July, respected Queens Counsel lawyer Geoffrey Cowper is to submit a report on how to overhaul an over-burdened justice system. But he has to do it without stepping on judicial independence, while attempting to change a legal culture centuries in the making and within a set and limited provincial government budget.

"I guess I'll have to make sure I'll continue to do my yoga poses in the morning so I can do the Houdini at the end of the process," Cowper quipped, acknowledging the challenge of his task.

The review comes amid angry attacks over lack of judicial resources aimed at the B.C. government direct from the benches of provincial court judges.

Over 100 criminal charges were stayed last year by provincial court judges over trial delays and the trials of hundreds more accused are nearing the tipping point for those who have waited too long to have their cases heard.

Crown lawyers say they are overburdened and there are too few of them, while trial lawyers have launched job action boycotting the courts in protest of what they say is government underfunding of the legal aid system.

"I'm speaking to pretty much anybody who will speak to me," Cowper said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "The first stage in any review like this is to try to find out what facts you can obtain."

A website has also been launched where Cowper is looking for input from anyone who's had dealings with the system or may have a suggestion to reform the system at www.bcjusticereform.ca. Cowper said he's looking for a range of voices.

"One of the things that's easiest to obtain is the views of the leaders of the system," he noted.

Premier Christy Clark launched the review amid harsh criticism that a convicted cocaine dealer and an accused Internet predator, along with alleged drunk drivers and marijuana growers, were freed because of long trial delays.

At the time, Clark said change was obviously needed because the crime rate was dropping while court delays and costs were going up.

The three top judges of the B.C. Appeal Court, B.C. Supreme Court and the provincial court have said they welcome the review, as long as that review recognizes that the justice system operates within a constitutional framework.

Cowper said his main job now is to be a curious as possible, finding out what works, what doesn't and what needs to change in the system.

"I think we have a lot of people in the system who are frustrated from a variety of perspectives," he said.

"One of the (frustrations) is that I think that a lot of reforms have been attempted."

Lawyer Barbara Young did a similar study for the provincial government six years ago.

"There is a growing crisis in the British Columbia civil justice system due to ever-increasing cost, complexity and delay," her 2006 report said, echoing the same complaints of today.

Provincial court judges have used 2005 as their base year for staffing levels and say even though the B.C. government has hired nine new judges, due to retirements and departures, the judicial compliment is still 16 judges below what it was seven years ago.

In a recent ruling, Judge Daniel Steinberg unleashed a blistering attack on the Clark government's handling of the problem of an overburdened court.

He called the current state of the provincial court in B.C. "abysmal."

"There are no amount of press releases or talk show appearances that are going to fix the over-stretched limits of our institutional resources," Steinberg said in the ruling as he freed a man accused of trying to prey on a child over the Internet.

Robin Elliot, a University of B.C. law professor, said there has been a good deal of friction between judges and governments over the decades around pay and resources, including two battles up to the Supreme Court of Canada.

But he said the statements from the bench seem to be statements of "last resort."

"The problem's been evident for them for years and they've been hoping the problem would be remedied by the provincial government," he said.

"From their standpoint it hasn't been, so now out of frustration you're starting to see these things being done."

Elliot said Cowper has a very, very difficult job ahead of him.

"We'll be looking with a great deal of interest at the recommendations that he makes."

Former B.C. New Democrat attorney general Ujjal Dosanjh agrees Cowper has a delicate job on many fronts.

"What I'm sensing is the government is as frustrated as the courts might be. The government of the day gets the blame for the backlogs and things of that nature, sometimes unfairly, sometimes fairly."