Will the Court date be moved?

[TheOrigRights]

Drink driving conviction.
At the first court date the case was adjourned until end of May to allow probation to make a report.
Defendant had probation meeting set for this week.
She's been told it has been postponed until a week before the court case due to staffing issues.
She is now worried the case will also be moved.

Does anyone know whether this is likely?

I'd say with the state of the Probation Service and the Coyrt Service

Sorry, don't know why that posted so soon! Was just going to say that neither the Court Service or the Probation Service are funded properly so it's highly likely.

The Tories unsuccessfully tried to privatise the Probation Service a few years ago, it has had disastrous affects.

Thank you. We will find out soon enough. Does the court communicate with the defendant or through her solicitor i.e. should she expect something in the post do you know?

If it's adjourned then yes, the Court will usually communicate with her Solicitor, if she has one.

Thank you. Yes, she does have a solicitor. While she acknowledges the seriousness of her crime and will deal with the punishment, the waiting for sentencing adds to that punishment, which I don't think is appropriate.
She committed the crime in January.

Completely understand your predicament but it’s very hard to find sympathy for someone who has driven whilst over the limit. It’s a very clear rule that can have life changing consequences for other people.

anyway, if probation report is straightforward then it might not be adjourned but I suspect she won’t be told that until right before the planned court date. Courts aren’t terribly good at foreseeing things and planning and usually react when it’s right under their noses.

I'm not asking you for sympathy.

Article 6 - the right to a fair trial is one the rights protected by the Human Rights Act.

A fair trial means you have the right to a hearing which is:

• heard within a reasonable time.

If you’re going to court, this means you have the right to – for example:

• have your case heard without excessive delays.

There is a massive backlog in the courts. Crime in January and court in April/May isn't excessive. Its pretty quick actually.

It’s not excessive compared to the general state of play and as stated I’ll reserve my thoughts for those awaiting court as parties injured.

Yeah, this is proceeding very quickly. Think yourself lucky

Unusually quickly I would say!

Thank you for clarifying. It's probably clear I have little experience of the system.
It's not me BTW.

I think it's easy to listen to your DF's anxiety and read things on the internet like "hear within a reasonable time" and start to get a bit whipped up about things.

Your DF committed a crime and should be thankful that she was caught before she killed someone.

I'd say that currently, anything within a year is pretty reasonable although it can vary depending on where you live.

Gone are the days where a guilty plea more or less meant completion within 3 months or so.

I wouldn’t have thought that this will lead to a delay - probation have committed to the court to provide the report within the time between the court dates. When they do that is up to them - they could do it an hour before the court hearing if they wanted! So I’d say that a meeting a week before the hearing is still perfectly realistic. It’s unusual for probation to request adjournments.

The court hearing went ahead on the expected date.