The British government wants to scrap jury trials in order to clear the outstanding caseload Record numbers of victims are waiting more than a year for their cases to be heard in the UK, and clearing the backlog “could take nearly 300 years,” Courts minister Sarah Sackman has said. According to Ministry of Justice figures, there is currently a backlog of 80,061 cases in Britain’s crown courts, and 370,722 cases in lower magistrates’ courts, an increase of 5% and 11% on last year, respectively.