Child welfare cases held alongside criminal ones

Child welfare hearings are taking place alongside criminal cases presided over by swamped judges in overcrowded courts without proper waiting areas, consultation rooms, toilets, or drinking water.

Vulnerable families share common areas with handcuffed prisoners, sensitive discussions are conducted in hallways and stairways without privacy, solicitors have to vie for a place early in the list so their clients do not have to wait all day, and lay litigants face a bewildering lack of information.