The final report of Lord Justice Briggs' LJ's Civil Courts Structure Review was published on 27 July 2016. Lord Justice Briggs identifies five main weaknesses of the civil courts structure, namely:
- Lack of adequate access to justice due to excessive costs expenditure / risk and the "lawyerish culture and procedure of the civil courts". He recommends the introduction of an online court by 2020 for claims up to GBP 25,000 and extension of fixed costs.
- Inefficiencies from the "continuing tyranny of paper" coupled with the use of obsolete and inadequate IT facilities in most of the civil courts. To resolve this, Briggs proposes the "digitisation of all the processes" of the civil courts which will eventually be paperless.
- Court of Appeal delays. Lord Justice Briggs regards the combination of current reforms and meticulous management and "discharge by the court's judges of an exceptionally heavy workload without undue distraction in the form of leadership and administrative responsibilities" as the means to resolve this problem.
- Under-investment in civil justice in the regions. Briggs recommends that regional resolution of specialist High Court cases be strengthened, based upon teams of a minimum of three senior Circuit Judges in each centre and increasing the number of these judges for whom civil work constitutes the majority of their judicial practice. Moreover, all Circuit and District judges' practices should consist of at least 40% civil work.
- Weaknesses in the processes of enforcement. To resolve this, Briggs proposes a unification of the processes of enforcement of civil judgments within a single court. Failing this, the "centralisation, rationalisation, harmonisation and digitisation" of the processes of enforcement.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.