“THE COURT REFORM PROGRAMME IS MARKED BY RECKLESSNESS AND LACK OF FORESIGHT”: VIEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE: MORE RESPONSES TO THE JUSTICE COMMITTEE
The responses to the Justice Committee review are a virtual gold mine of information for anyone interested in civil procedure and the practical impact of court reforms. The reforms have not meant improvements, far from it. This can be seen…
CLOSING COURTS: MORE MADNESS AND MAYHEM FROM HMCTS: CLOSING MORE COURTS & NO PROPER RESEARCH (BUT THEY’VE PAID £30 MILLION TO “CONSULTANTS” SO EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE
Anyone concerned with access to justice knows that this includes physical access. There have to be courts for people to go to.I want to encourage everyone to read and to respond to the HMCTS document “Fit for the future: transforming…
THE BALLAD OF READING COUNTY COURT LIFT: IN POETRY
Barrister Rawdon Crozier has put the plight of Reading County Court life into a poem. It speaks for itself, as all good poetry should. The Ballad of Reading County Court Lift I never saw a lift which looked With…
THE BALLAD OF READING COUNTY COURT LIFT: THIS IS A TRAGEDY NOT A COMEDY
The earlier post about the Twitter account of broken lift in Reading County Court has already led to a lot of responses. This is a battle being fought with humour, however its consequences are serious, profoundly serious. Many people have…
THE BALLAD OF READING COUNTY COURT LIFT: THE LIFT WITH ITS OWN TWITTER ACCOUNT – AN ESCALATING PROBLEM
Last week I went to Reading County Court. This was a new court to me and I asked the Legal Twitterati for directions (“out of the station turn left at Snappy Snaps”, for anyone who needs to know). What was…
“THE STATE HAS SIMPLY WASHED ITS HANDS OF THE PROBLEM, LEAVING THE SOLUTION… TO THE GOODWILL, AND CHARITY, OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION”
Every sensible citizen should read the judgment of Sir James Munby in M v P [2019] EWFC 14. It is a classic case of the government creating a problem and leaving the victims unsupported (whilst it employs a formidable legal team…
WHEN THE COURT LETS YOU DOWN: A WORRYING CHRONOLOGY
In BC v BG [2019] EWFC 7 the court rejected an application to set aside an arbitration award made in ancillary relief proceedings. The application was unsuccessful (and the applicant awarded to pay costs). However the issue of concern is the…
THE LANGUAGE OF LAW: A JUDGMENT THAT IS WRITTEN FOR THE BENEFIT OF A CHILD
A short tweet I did yesterday has caused dozens of comments. It is not about a civil case but a family case. However it is a matter of universal interest, the language of law. In this case the judgment had…
“CIVIL JUSTICE IS A PUBLIC GOOD”: SPEECH BY LORD JUSTICE GROSS: WHY WE ARE WORKING IN THE “CINDERELLA” SECTOR
This morning I am encouraging you all to read the speech of Lord Justice Gross given to the London Common Law & Commercial Bar Association Annual Lecture. It is a wide-ranging speech, the essential theme is that Civil Justice is…
ARROGANT, RUDE, SEXIST (AND AT TIMES BARELY LITERATE): THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE: WE ALL DESERVE BETTER MUCH, MUCH BETTER
My “litigator’s New Year’s resolution” for 2019 was to recommend that everyone read more of Emily Dugan’s work on exposing the impact of the cuts at the Ministry of Justice. When I wrote the “resolution” I could not have conceived…
A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION FOR LITIGATORS: READ BUZZFEED MORE OFTEN: FIND OUT WHAT JUDGES REALLY THINK AND THE MOJ’S HIGHLY “SELECTIVE” USE OF STATISTICS
I have written before about the impressive work done by the journalist Emily Duggan on Buzzfeed News. Emily is one of the people who keeps a close, and sceptical, eye on what we are being told about reforms to the …
THE JUSTICE PAPERS FOR JUSTICE WEEK: ESSENTIAL READING: VIEWS FROM THE SHARP END
The Bar Council has circulated links to a number of papers written in support of Justice Week : “a series of personal accounts giving first-hand insight into the crises occurring across the system.” Every one of these deserves the widest publicity…
“EFFICIENCY” AND THE COURT SYSTEM 3: WANT TO BE A LAWYER? BUY YOURSELF A SELFIE STICK
In the third (and I suspect not the last) I want to set out a series of tweets which arose from the earlier posts on this topic. There were a series of tweets about the problems caused by courts losing…
“EFFICIENCY” AND THE COURT SYSTEM 2: A COMEDY OF ERRORS – YOU BE THE JUDGE
Yesterday I did a short post on court errors. I have been given permission to post another one. Again I will let the facts speak for themselves. A series of tweets from Mairead @m417ead 10 repeated with their permission. A SAD SAGA Trial 1…
PROVING THINGS 118: IT SEEMS THAT EVEN THE LORD CHANCELLOR DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO PROVE THINGS: “THAT FINAL SENTENCE WAS BOTH INACCURATE AND MISLEADING”
A body charged with the delivery of legal services to some of the most vulnerable people in our society (and which, incidentally, is in charge of the justice system) should be making decisions that are logical and justifiable – you…
LITIGANTS IN PERSON & FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: MINISTRY OF JUSTICE COULD BE ON THE NAUGHTY STEP
Just to keep people up to date with the recent posts about the Ministry of Justice and the disclosure of the research in relation to litigants in person. The MOJ has now been reported to the Information Commissioner. A RECAP…
LITIGANTS IN PERSON: THE FULL STORY EMERGES: LITIGANTS IN PERSON COST THE JUSTICE SYSTEM MORE
Last week I commented on Buzzfeed’s piece on research that the MOJ carried out on litigants in person. After a freedom of information request the MOJ, reluctantly, handed over a six page summary of research it carried out on litigants…
HATS OFF TO BUZZFEED: GOVERNMENT RESEARCH ON LITIGANTS IN PERSON FINALLY “DISCLOSED” (IN A MANNER)
This weekend I reported on the decision of District Judge Read that expressed profound concern about the fate of litigants of person in a family law case. Hats off to BuzzFeed which, after a tussle and an appeal to the…
“UNSATISFACTORY IN TERMS OF PROCEDURAL HISTORY, PREPARATION, PROCESS AND OUTCOME”: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TAKE LEGAL REPRESENTATION AWAY
John Vater QC, writing on Twitter, has – rightly- categorised the District Judge Read as a “hero”. When giving judgment in JY v RY [2018] EWFC B16 the judge made a number of telling observations about the profound implications of lack…
THE GAVEL, THE WIG AND THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE: PERPETUATING INACCURACY IS NOT ITS ROLE
It comes as a surprise to many that judges in England and Wales do not use gavels. It is a widespread myth. Many images of judges in the media have a judge with gavel in hand. There is a Twitter…