Courts
An alleged £90m financial black hole in the courts service budget highlights fundamental problems in the government’s approach to court funding, causing problems for all those concerned, say lawyers.
In a letter leaked to the Conservative Party, Lord Justice Leveson warns that £27m of cost saving exercises must be made by March 2009 to off set the effects of a sharp fall in court income—a total saving of £90m must be made over the next three years and that redundancies may become a reality.
The letter says the fall in court income has resulted from a reduction in the number of cases brought by HM Revenue & Customs to retrieve unpaid taxes in the magistrates’ courts. It is also claims that reductions in debt collection has led to a funding shortfall.
David Greene, president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, says the shortfall shows that the government is willing to abandon responsibility for maintaining the court system. “For many years, the court system has been run on the principle that it should be selffunding,” he says.
“This means that the burden of running our courts falls on the less well-off who become embroiled in the civil court process either through debt proceedings or housing possessions and then have to pay the costs orders against them.”
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