Judges 'should have case management at centre of training'

Judges 'should have case management at centre of training'

Judges should be evaluated for their case management abilities, and case management should be considered as a vital part of judicial training - rather than 'just an add-on' - according to research commissioned by the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD).

The report on judicial case management, published last week, said that as judges do not have the opportunity to watch each other's case management practice in court, feedback and discussion about methods should be encouraged.

It said informal peer review by one another might be a method of evaluation which judges would accept, as it allayed concerns about their independence being undermined.

An LCD spokeswoman said the report is being considered.

Meanwhile, in a survey of 75 FTSE 250 firms, carried out by Surrey firm Stevens & Bolton, 57% said they had used alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Of those who had, three-quarters said it was satisfactory.

Half of the respondents said they used arbitration occasionally (7% said regularly), and 57% include an arbitration clause in their contracts.

However, only 30% said they favoured arbitration over the courts.

Of the Woolf reforms, 11% thought they had made litigation cheaper, and 30% thought cases were more expensive as a result.

However, 48% agreed that litigation was now faster, and 70% said the pre-action protocols were useful tools for resolving disputes.

Stevens & Bolton partner Michael Frisby said: 'This shows there is still not the enthusiasm for ADR that one might expect.

There's been an awful lot of talk about ADR and it's surprising, despite the stated aim of the judiciary to encourage it, that it is not more widely used among businesses.'

Jeremy Fleming