header-logo header-logo

11 August 2017 / Kerry Underwood
Issue: 7758 / Categories: Features , Profession
printer mail-detail

Time to shape up?

Kerry Underwood recommends some summer reading & top tips for the new Lord Chancellor

Our new Lord Chancellor, David Lidington, faces an unenviable task in dealing with a civil justice system that is in serious difficulty. Low judicial morale and the related inability to recruit judges, stratospheric court fees and seemingly endless and disjointed reviews and reports, Brexit, and a legal profession close to despair are just some of the matters that will require his urgent attention. Here are a few ideas as to how matters could be improved.

Improvement matters

First, only the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), and no other government department, should make proposals for reform of the justice system or the costs regime. Thus the Department of Health’s proposals regarding clinical negligence costs should be withdrawn and fed into Lord Justice Jackson’s recently published review of fixed costs. Anyone on the wrong end of costs orders thinks that they are too high. The Health Department is there to run the health service, not to determine the level of costs it should pay

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DAC Beachcroft—Clare Dewar

DAC Beachcroft—Clare Dewar

DAC Beachcroft strengthens Scottish real estate capabilitywith partner appointment

Womble Bond Dickinson—Brendan Ryan

Womble Bond Dickinson—Brendan Ryan

Womble Bond Dickinson appoints Brendan Ryan as partner in Public Law Projects team

Parklane Plowden Chambers—five appointments

Parklane Plowden Chambers—five appointments

Parklane Plowden Chambers welcomes five new barristers

NEWS
Pro bono is celebrating a silver anniversary, with initiatives putting businesses and students at the heart of access to justice
Choosing the wrong expert can cost a clinical negligence claimant more than their case
Judges risk weakening their own independence by staying silent over government reforms, a leading public lawyer argues
A discount on damages does not automatically mean an equivalent haircut for legal costs in military deafness claims
Police powers targeting concealed identities at protests come with procedural conditions that could determine whether prosecutions succeed
back-to-top-scroll