header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
11 August 2017 / Kerry Underwood
Issue: 7758 / Categories: Features , Profession
printer mail-detail

Time to shape up?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.

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 Thus the Department of Health’s proposals regarding clinical negligence costs should be withdrawn and fed into Lord Justice Jackson’s recently published review of fixed costs.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

Read All
Sponsored by
Harper James—Lottie Hugo

Harper James—Lottie Hugo

Commercial law firm announces appointment of corporate partner

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joins corporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Divorce ‘nuclear weapon’ freezes assets but entangles outsiders
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
NLJ this week: What counts as ‘rent’? Court says labour alone won’t do
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Your magistrates’ court needs you!
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026—the winners!
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
NLJ this week: Freed but failed—justice system leaves the innocent empty-handed
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll