CIVIL UNREST

The number of civil law cases launched in the High Court jumped by a quarter last year—the first increase since the 1999 Woolf reforms triggered a steady decline. At 61,691 last year compared to 49,442 in 2005, the number of High Court commercial law cases is now at its highest for six years, according to Reynolds Porter Chamberlain’s (RPC’s) review of the latest judicial statistics, obtained from the Ministry of Justice in advance of official publication. New types of litigation funding products are increasingly lowering the barriers of entry to litigation, says RPC solicitor, Jonathan Wyles.