Lord Chief Justice provides news of change for the judiciary
Judges will be given “clear guidance” on the niqab, the Lord Chief Justice has confirmed.
Sir John Thomas, speaking at a press conference last week, said a Practice Direction on the subject is currently being drawn up and will go out for consultation “in the very near future”.
The judiciary is also considering changes to the civil procedure rules to accommodate the increase in litigants in person following the legal aid cuts.
Sir John said: “Our rules of procedure were by and large designed for cases with lawyers, and as we do not have lawyers in quite a lot of small cases now, we are going to have to look at our forms of procedure.” He praised district judges for being “highly innovative” in helping litigants navigate their way through cases.
Ministry of Justice plans to save £200m from the Tribunal and Courts Service could be partly achieved through greater use of technology such as Skype and FaceTime and by managing the court estate without selling off any buildings, Sir John said.
