TWO SHORT TWEETS THAT SUM UP THE STATE OF COURT ADMINISTRATION IN 2019

July 10, 2019 · by · in Access to justice, Civil Procedure

In the civil courts we don’t have someone like the Secret Barrister who exposes, carefully, clearly and meticulously,  the shortcomings in the justice system. However two tweets from yesterday seem to me to exemplify the current state of court administration. What struck me most is that most practitioners reading these won’t be surprised at either of them.  .

So true: a DDJ at a NW CJC told me that my sols had breached direction to file case summary 48 hours before. “Ma’am, forgive me: I have the email here sending the papers six days ago” DDJ: “Your solicitors should know it takes 5 days to get papers from court office to judge.”

 

Probably from an order received after the date things were due to be done by, seems to be common these days ….

(Like the Secret Barrister I should make it clear that I am not blaming the court staff involved. The fact is that the system is badly run. It is symptomatic that all those responsible for change have the titles including “change”, not improvement.” )

Her Majesty’s Association of District Judges put the position far better than I can. 

“More than half of the budget of £1.1bn has already been spent for limited tangible benefit. Court closures and huge reductions in staff numbers with more to come have led to a stark deterioration in the service with no immediate sign of the promised technology being delivered”

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