The chief judge of the B.C. Provincial Court and others are concerned that a shortage of provincial court judges could lead to more accused criminals walking free without a trial.
Much of the work police and prosecutors do ends up at provincial court, but there is a time limit. If a judge can't hear a case within two years, it's often thrown out and the accused walks free.
Half-day criminal trials are supposed to be scheduled within six months, but in 25 of 29 courthouses that hasn't been the case. In Cranbrook, two alleged drug dealers were released in the last month because their cases took two years.
"We're frustrated when we have a case we know we can prove the accused guilty and we never get to this because the case gets tossed for delay," Crown Counsel Stephen Fudge told CTV News.
Other B.C. courthouses face delays of anywhere from 10 to 14 months.
The chief judge of B.C. Provincial Court said the delays are largely due to a shortage of judges. The courts have lost 16 judges since 2005. There are only enough provincial funds to fill nine of those positions.
In an unusual public statement, B.C.'s chief judge said, "if judicial resources are not forthcoming, growing backlogs are inevitable."
Vancouver court staff said they found no evidence of a case dropped this year because of a delay, but it has happened in the past. An alleged drunk driver had his charges stayed in 2007 due to a log jam in the courts.
NDP critic Leonard Krog said the lack of judges is putting public safety at risk.
"The message it says to the criminal community is we don't have enough judges to hear your cases and a number of you are going to walk free instead of doing time in jail," Krog told CTV News.
Last week B.C. Attorney General Mike de Jong said he was working with the judiciary to solve the problem, but was not available today to comment on the Chief Judge's statement.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
