A decade of CPR

To mark the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) next year, NLJ will be running a series of articles on their impact inside the courts and out.

Peter Thompson QC, general editor of Th e Civil Court Practice, says that in
his Final Report on Access to Justice, Lord Woolf criticised existing procedures for being too expensive, complicated and slow, and for producing an inequality of arms between rich litigants and poor.

“Lord Woolf recommended simpler, unifi ed rules, more court control, free advice for litigants in person and greater use of IT.

“After 10 years since the new rules came in we can say confidently that most litigants in person have benefited enormously from the reforms,” Thompson adds.