Civil way: 29 October 2021

END OF MONTH REPORT

District judges and their deputies recently compiled data for one month on how they were spending their judicial time and without even the enticement of free participation in a prize draw. The civil statistics are interesting. Trial durations are overestimated: on average, a three-hour trial for a 4hour 30 mins estimate. LiP hearings are shorter than represented hearings (someone at the MoJ will jump on that). Review hearings for possession cases have been a flop. Too few settlements and so the Master of the Rolls has decreed that such hearings and triage hearings in advance of the final shoot out should no longer be standard practice but local practice may dictate otherwise. There will be a CPR change.

COURT OF APPEAL GOES BANKRUPT

We have met the beanless defence to a bankruptcy petition. ‘No point in bankrupting me, I don’t have a bean.’ The defence in Hughes and another