CASH CRISIS: civil courts fall behind foreign counterparts, say litigation solicitors

Civil courts in England and Wales will not receive enough funding to bring them up to the technological standards of similar courts abroad, a working party of solicitors and barristers told the Court Service last week.

The criticism formed part of the response of a London Solicitors Litigation Association working party to a Court Service sub-committee considering the best way to install IT in civil courts (see [2003] Gazette, 1 May, 6).

The response came as the amount the Court Service will receive for its technology programme for the civil courts is understood to have plummeted to 95 million from the 500 million it initially bid.

The working party said further funding would have been preferable and that future funding will be required.

It said all courts should have at least one computer terminal for e-mails and that courts should be brought 'up to speed' with technology as soon as possible.

However, the group did agree that - given the amount of money available - the Court Service's approach of focusing the money on the High Court and 50 leading county courts was sensible.

It also called for the on-line filing and remote issue of civil applications in the widest possible range of proceedings, adding that the Court Service should prioritise e-mail, so that practitioners can communicate electronically on 'as many issues as possible as quickly as possible'.

The response said court fees should be payable electronically and that an electronic case management system 'should be an important long-term aim of the Court Service'.

Anthony Maton, a litigation partner at KLegal in London and chairman of the working party, said: 'There is a massive potential for technology to make civil litigation cheaper, quicker and more accessible for all.

But to seize those benefits requires real commitment from government - both in terms of funding and in adapting the way the courts work.

Thus far that appears absent.'

Speaking to the Gazette last week, Lord Falconer, the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, said: 'I believe we have a viable and pretty impressive civil and family justice system.

Of course, like all public services, it would be nice if there was more money for it.

You can obviously identify individual problems in individual places but it is, I believe, a well-run system that provides a very high quality of service.'

Jeremy Fleming