Viewpoint

'Few would argue about the blight of the Woolf reforms—the dreadful escalation in the cost of litigation. But the benefits go a long way towards wiping out the debit balance'

“Woolf has changed the attitude of procedural judges—the appellation enjoyed usually by district judges as they go about the task of case managing civil claims—and the rest of the judiciary.

And the attitude of the judiciary has been pivotal in bringing those benefits about. Practitioners will telephone judges when the occasion is appropriate and e-mail exchanges between the judiciary and practitioners are commonplace.

While the insufficiency of funding has stifled the development of IT for judicial use, even the crustier of judges can these days be found slaving over a hot laptop as they perfect their own orders and type their reserved judgments. Who would have thought that the very same judges who say 11 years ago were struggling to make themselves a cup of tea without the aid of an usher would now be tinkering a computer