Levelling up access to justice (Pt 3)

Let us approach the issue of access to justice, technology and the courts elliptically. We will first digress to a recently published paper from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: ‘Justice for sale: how London’s legal system courted the global super-elite’ (bit.ly/2VUcge). This reports on the government-led drive to get more Russian and other oligarchs into our courts. The Lord Chancellor wants more glittering bonanzas like Berezovsky v Abramovich [2012] EWHC 2463 (Comm), [2012] All ER (D) 116 (Sep), where any moral unease at the conduct of the parties melts away at the eye-watering size of the lucrative court and lawyer fees. And to achieve this, the courts have to contribute a modern service to commercial standards. We have to ask whether the pitch for remunerative, high-fee international work is being made at the expense of smaller domestic claims. This raises five issues.

Counting the costs

First,