Lawyers lament announcement of planned closure of 86 courts by MoJ
The government’s decision to close 86 courts and tribunals is a sign that “the days of the local county court are gone”.
Last week, the Ministry of Justice announced that it would shut all but five of 91 courts and tribunals originally earmarked for closure. The five are Bath, Carmarthen, St Helens, Stockport and West Cumbria. Some 64 of the sites will close as proposed in the consultation on the closures last July, and alternative venues may be found for the remaining 22.
David Greene, NLJ consultant editor and senior partner at Edwin Coe, laments the decision as “further distancing individuals geographically from the civil justice process”.
However, he adds: “We should not, of course, tie ourselves to the delivery of civil justice within the old framework.
“Old-style establishments may represent the anachronistic ‘majesté’ of the law but can be places of alienation from the law. Civil justice can be delivered in different ways and the Briggs proposals for online courts may be a step towards that end.
“The problem in the short term is that there is no replacement for the courts that are closing; the cart that is court closures seems to have jumped ahead of the horse that is the Briggs proposals.”
Last month, Lord Briggs proposed that civil disputes valued at less than £25,000 could be dealt with by an online court, in his interim report on civil justice.
In a statement to Parliament last week, Justice minister Shailesh Vara said the government is investing £700m over the next four years in IT systems, modern technology and building updates. He said nearly half of all courts and tribunals are empty for half their available hearing time.
“Court closures are difficult decisions; local communities have strong allegiances to their local courts and I understand their concerns,” Vara said.
“But changes to the estate are vital if we are to modernise a system which everybody accepts is unwieldy, inefficient, slow, expensive to maintain and unduly bureaucratic.”
Family lawyers' group Resolution say the proposed closures are “devastating”, particularly for “victims of domestic abuse, young people and those who rely on public transport to get around”.
