justice delayed is justice denied

If, as an eminent jurist once said, justice delayed is often justice denied, it must be an object worthy of all effort to procure local courts, where speedy justice can be obtained;[…]

[1853 April 16, “Conference in Liverpool.—Mercantile Law and the Judicial System.”, in The Manchester Guardian, number 2,533, Manchester: Printed and published for Taylor, Garnett, & Co., […], by Jeremiah Garnett, […], →OCLC, page 6, column 6

But above all, if we be just men, we shall go forward in the name of truth and right, and bear this in mind, that when the case is ripe and the hour has come, justice delayed is justice denied.

1868 March 16, William Ewart Gladstone, Member of Parliament for South Lancashire, “Imperial Parliament. [House of Commons.—Monday, March 16. State of Ireland.]”, in The Daily News, number 6,824, London: […] William King Hales, […], published 17 March 1868, →OCLC, page 2, column 6

In British courts, lawsuits, civil and criminal, come to trial within six months. In the U.S., which professes as much respect as Britain for the principle that "justice delayed is justice denied," it takes more than four years.

1955 October 17, “The Law: Battling the Backlog”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Time, volume LXVI, number 16, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 32, column 3

Cases may be delayed, and justice delayed may be justice denied. Sometimes the parties may die before they get justice, but theoretically all the cases are considered at one time or another anyway.

[1984 March 13, Neal Smith, subcommittee chairman, Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1985: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, Second Session […], part 6 (The Judiciary), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 20

"Dr. Martin Luther King said justice delayed is justice denied," says Joe Roy, director of the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. "As a society, we need to bring closure to these cases, but it depends on the evidence and witnesses still living. In the Cherry case, they were able to get witnesses to come forward."

2002 July–August, Hamil Harris, “Up Front: Final Conviction Brings Church Bombing Murder Case to a Close”, in Victoria L. Valentine, editor, The New Crisis, volume 109, number 4, Baltimore, Md.: The Crisis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 1