In France, 81% of jurisdictions require more than 12 months to handle civil cases. In the UK the average time taken to process indictable cases through magistrates' courts was 124 days in February 1989. In Italy, experts estimate 60% of the 33,500 men and women in prison have not been convicted of anything, they are merely awaiting trial. Cases in the Los Angeles court system may take up to 4 years to be tried. In a medium-sized city of the USA it was estimated in 1990 that in an average year, some 5,000 felony charges are filed. Even assuming 2 felonies per person, the local courts cannot handle more than 150 to 200 trials per year. There is thus no way of trying more than 5% of the felony cases.In 1975 there were two judgements per year by the European Court of Human rights, compared to 100 in 1992, with the case load still increasing. Annual applications concerning cases exceeded 5,500 in 1992. With the average case taking over 5 years, the possibility of prompt judicial process is decreasing.