The country's courts are jam packed with cases, and the country's prisons are jam packed with people being held on remand in custody.
Now a new project to cut those logjams has worked, but only in part, and only at the price of extra pressure put on lawyers, police and even prison cells.
Phil Pennington has been looking at a newly released review of what was called the 'Backlog Project'.
Pennington spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
