Not so much O/T but a bit random....

... I won't bother with the chain of thought that led to this post and whilst it is probably old news ...

"On 6 November 2019, Joey Barton appeared at Sheffield Crown Court, pleading not guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. A provisional trial date was set for 1 June 2020"...what has happened since?
Have I missed summat'? I know the wheels of justice grind slowly but that delay is ridiculous whether or not Covid is to blame!

 

Covid delayed many court dates last summer, and in the hearing to set the date of the trial - all parties agreed to a date in June 21 rather than during the season.

 

Long before Covid there was the Tory austerity programme, and a long-running squeeze on funds for the criminal justice system. Courts have been closed all over the land. Rotherham's shiny new magistrates' court, built for £6M in 1994, and restored at huge cost after the 2007 floods, is now a pile of rubble. Legal Aid has been slashed. While Saint Joey is unlikely to qualify for legal aid, it's downgrading in criminal cases has had the effect of reducing the number of practitioners. Court closures and funding cuts unsurprisingly result in case delays. And then came Covid.......!

 

As above: another great anomaly of U.K. politics.
The Tories are tough on crime - because they keep saying they are.

Labour are soft liberals; therefore they’re soft on criminals.

but the reality is that Tory cost cutting of police means there’s less police on the street, more criminals go uncaught. If they do get caught, due to cuts in the CPS and courts, they have to wait years before getting a court date, resulting in more dropped cases. And if they do eventually get found guilty, there’s more chance of a softer sentence due to a lack of jail cells. You can’t have justice on the cheap.

But we do have a Home Secretary keen to go out on raids with frontline staff. Full double page spread in the daily Mail, proving that they’re serious about crime. You can’t have everything.

 

You are 'avin a larf! The Italian legal system is an absolute mess. Civil actions, for example, can take years (7-8) to come to court and the costs to do so are horrendous. Suing someone for non payment of a debt is just one example.

The only people who seem to get fast tracked are, (surprise, surprise) the Agenzia Entrata (Tax office) . This is compounded by the fact that trying to appeal or raise a defence if they have got it wrong is nigh on impossible. Apparently, our accountant (EVERYONE needs one to navigate the complex tax returns all tax residents have to complete each year ) once told us that the AE staff receive annual bonuses based on the amount of revenue they generate from fines for incomplete, incorrect fraudulent or otherwise tax returns. They have recently passed a new decree (using Covid as an excuse ) to ovveride the statute of limitation for tax returns from 4 years (for errors on completed returns ) or 6 years( in the case of deliberate non completion of tax returns) to 8 years in all cases and are now auditing and issuing fines all the way back to 2015 . These fines apparently include annual compound interest on the unpaid sum plus between 90% and 180% of the actual amount unpaid). Not really that surprising given the state of teh Italian economy. they are desperate to claw back as much revenue as they can.