Litigants in person will “become the norm” even in “the larger civil claims and difficult family disputes”, the new president of the Association of District Judges has said.
District Judge Paul Mildred said proposals to cut back on legal aid would lead to more court users representing themselves which would increase pressure on the courts. (See p 452).
This would be “bad for the litigants and bad for the administration of justice as the duration of cases involving unrepresented litigants inevitably increases and the waiting time for cases to come on for hearing increases with it”.
Mediation was “no panacea”, he said, as it was unsuitable for many cases.
District Judge Mildred, in his first statement as president, said he would give “maximum support” to district judges as the pressure grew.
He said there must be “greater judicial involvement in the running of the courts, particularly in the management of the county court closure programme”, and “more efficient use of the resources we have, including our own time”.
It made no sense, he said, that circuit judges in one area heard fast track cases while district judges heard them in another.
District Judge Mildred sits at Bournemouth Combined Court Centre, and has been a full-time judge for 15 years. He was previously based at Reading County Court.
District Judge Richard Chapman, who sits at Telford County Court, has been elected senior vice president, and District Judge Harold Godwin, who sits at Haverfordwest County Court, has been elected junior vice president.
