Care proceedings take on average more than a year to resolve, statistics released for the first time by the Ministry of Justice have revealed. New data on the average length of civil and criminal cases published this week from the third quarter of 2011 showed that care proceedings took an average of 55 weeks.

Hearings for small claims (under ?5,000) in civil courts took place on average 30 weeks after claims were made; which rose to 57 weeks for higher value cases. The statistics also showed that on average criminal cases were completed 152 days after the offence.

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