The time between issue and trial for fast- and multi-track claims now takes 75 weeks, according to the latest government figures.
This is despite volumes for all civil actions remaining below pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest civil justice statisticspublished by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), for the third quarter of 2022.
These showed that between 2002 and 2019, the average time for fast- and multi-track actions to reach trial was between 52 and 61 weeks, before increasing over the past two years of the pandemic.
Multi- and fast-track claims took on average 75.5 weeks to reach a trial, 4.8 weeks longer than the same period in 2021 and half a week longer than the second quarter of this year.
At 51.2 weeks, the time from issue to trial in small claims was near the all-time high of 51.6 reached in the first quarter of this year.
There has never been a better time to mediate.