Specialist judges are vital to the future performance of the courts, commercial and personal injury litigators agreed last week.

Graham Huntley, president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, told a session on civil justice reforms that if England is going to have a top court system, there must be more specialist judges. Given the cost of litigation, 'clients should have the best judges for their cases', he said.


He was backed by another commercial litigator, Georgina Squire, chairwoman of the Law Society's civil litigation committee. She said she was frustrated by the lack of recognition of the importance of specialist judges. 'It's not elitism but a better use of judicial resources,' she insisted.


Allan Gore QC, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said: 'There is enough litigation out there to ascribe specialist judges.' He pointed to statistics showing that the average personal injury and clinical negligence trial in the High Court took just a day. 'Seven or eight full-time personal injury judges would be able to provide a Rolls-Royce service,' he claimed.