By Catherine Baksi


Litigators believe that judges and masters are ill-equipped to make effective e-disclosure case management orders and should be given greater training on dealing with routine problems, research has revealed.



A survey of 100 litigators at 22 leading law firms, conducted by KMPG Forensic, also found widespread concerns about ambiguity in the e-disclosure rules laid down in the Civil Procedure Rules.



Lawyers said they wanted greater clarity and guidance on the types of information that needed to be disclosed and the cases in which the rules applied, but this was hampered by lack of training among the judiciary whose task it was to interpret the broadly drafted rules.



Some 48% of those surveyed believed that judges and masters were not sufficiently equipped to make effective decisions on e-disclosure matters. This figure rose to 71% of litigators more heavily involved in e-disclosure. Half of all respondents said judges and masters should be trained on the difficulties routinely faced in such exercises.



Graham Huntley, immediate past president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association and partner at Lovells, said: 'We should not overlook the fact that technology now generates far larger quantities of recorded material, which is caught by present disclosure rules designed before the age of e-communications. The growth has also probably taken place since most of our senior judges experienced disclosure exercises in their work at the bar. So it is unsurprising that training is required.' 



A Judicial Communications Office spokesman said: 'A working group, involving representatives from commercial firms and academics, has looked at the implications of e-disclosure and, after producing a detailed report, has amended the Commercial Court guide to include detailed guidance on managing e-disclosure.'



He said there was ongoing dialogue between judges and the Commercial Court users' committee on the issue, and that from next year the Judicial Studies Board would be including e-disclosure on its national training programme.