A major backlog in judge-alone trials

The procedure's often reserved for cases with a maximum sentence of two years jail - and cases which are unable to have a jury trial.

A not-guilty plea puts a case review hearing forward for the following four to six weeks.

But the Herald's Open Justice reports more than half of the cases continue to be adjourned, with no end in sight.

Between October 2023 and September last year, just over four-thousand judge-alone trials were resolved -- out of more than 11-thousand scheduled.