Use costs sanctions, Lord Phillips urges judges

The Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, this week endorsed the use of judicial powers to punish solicitors with costs orders if they do not comply with the Woolf reforms, and especially alternative dispute resolution (ADR) orders.Speaking at the Inner Temple, Lord Phillips said ADR was effective at keeping prices lower, and parties on trading terms.He extolled the Commercial Court's case management of ADR and saiddistrict judges need better training and resources to deal with it.Asked whether he would welcome an entrenchment within the civil justice system of the recent finding in Dunnett v Railtrack - which saw a winning claimant penalised on costs for failing to obey an ADR order - Lord Phillips said that any cases which give the judiciary the opportunity to impose costs sanctions were 'extremely good'.However, he said costs sanctions should not be confined to ADR but also imposed for failure to conform to pre-action protocols, and other breaches of the Woolf reforms.He stressed that sanctions should be at the discretion of the judge.