Fury over ‘chaos’ in central civil claims processing
A ‘totally chaotic’ scheme to slash costs and processing times for civil claims has prompted around 100 individual complaints to the Law Society’s council member for civil litigation.
The complaints concern Salford Business Centre (SBC), also known as the National Civil Business Centre, which is HM Courts and Tribunal Service’s (HMCTS) new centralised facility for handling civil claims. SBC is due next month to replace the role of county courts in issuing claims. It holds seals for every county court in England and Wales, allowing users to name a preferred court.
HMCTS says that SBC’s electronic filing and billing systems, allowing firms to pay on account, will cut turnaround times from five days to one and save up to £3m a year.
However, solicitors complain that the new system delays rather than streamlines the process. They claim it is impossible to contact SBC by telephone and emails are routinely ignored.
Juliet Herzog, principal of Liverpool firm Herzog & Associates, told the Gazette: ‘My staff say SBC is totally chaotic, with papers sent to the wrong place and even judgments sent prematurely. We applaud the motive behind SBC - cost-efficiency - but we regret the loss of the local court counter staff, whom we knew well and who could get things done.’
An article about the SBC published in the Gazette on 1 December 2011 elicited 600 emails to the Law Society’s civil justice committee’s website in a week. The majority complained about the difficulty of contacting the centre by telephone.
Law Society council member for civil litigation Keith Etherington said: ‘Around half the complaints are about there being no phone line into the SBC, which is absurd. The good news is HMCTS has promised us a “dedicated telephone contact team” from 19 March.’ This is the date from which the centre is due to issue money claims for all county courts in England and Wales.
Business process services provider Liberata has begun contacting practitioners who wish to register for the payment by accounts service. HMCTS is evaluating a pilot scheme, and a date for the service’s launch will be announced ‘in due course’.
An HMCTS spokesperson said: ‘SBC is committed to working with court users, professional bodies and customers to continuously improve its processes, and deliver an efficient and value-for-money service.’
The Society’s civil justice committee is seeking feedback about solicitors’ experiences. Post comments.
- See also Benchmarks.
Comments
When will organisations learn
When will organisations learn that kids in distant call centres are no substitute for real experienced workers in local offices.
Of course the SBC is going to be a mess. No doubt the organisers will admit to some initial teething problems - the solution to which will be to employ some more kids and plug in a few phones.
When Jackson's erroneous reforms are finally implemented, the only representatives for victims of accidents will be kids in distant call centres (because there won't be enough money in it for real Solicitors to be interested anymore).
What a load of rubbish
Stop trying to fix systems that already work perfectly well
Just remember - it's your
Just remember - it's your fault!
Because, Mr Clarke says that nobody actually needs to use a court anyway. It is only because the litigant is unreasonable and hasn't gone to mediation, or whatever! (Unless you're a Russian Oligarch of course).
But this is of course just the start of a much more worrying trend. I had cause to go to a Social Security Tribunal recently (which is not my practice area). I telephoned the number on the letter for the tribunal, to let them know I was stuck in horrendous traffic.
The number was disconnected, with a message saying "please call 0345 000xyz". So I called the other number, and asked to speak to the usher or somebody to let them know I was running late. They asked me what tribunal it was. I said "the west-town tribunal of course, that's what number I have called". She then said that you can't call the individual location anymore, and there is just one office. She would take the message and let them know herself.
So that is the way of the future - there will be no County Courts as we know them. There will be a network (getting smaller year by year) of "hearing centres" with skeleton staff just to organise the hearings themselves (which as we know are unnecessary in any event). All "case management" will be done from Salford.
But unlike others who share their "fury" over the changes, the real fact is that the existing system is appalling anyway!
Our courts are already moving to only being open for enquiries two hours a day, with a poster saying again, it's your fault if you need to go to the counter because you should have used the internet. I asked the girl behind the counter how would that help if we needed to get an urgent fee remission claim dealt with for an injunction application to issue. She didn't even understand why it would be a problem. You can just send them by post she said. I tried to point out that every time we have one of these things and send them by post, they get rejected for some trivial pointless technicality that is best resolved face to face. She just looked blank.
And what if the Litigant in
And what if the Litigant in Person does not have a computer?