Never give a lawyer the job of naming something. That was one lesson of this week’s groundbreaking conference on the Online Procedure Rule Committee jointly organised by the Law Society and Ministry of Justice at Chancery Lane. High on the agenda was the consultation on a ‘Pre-Action Model for the Digital Justice System’ – a set of standards for online services to resolve disputes without involving the courts.
‘The overriding objective is the promotion of access to justice, and enabling claims to be resolved quickly, efficiently and fairly, and at proportionate cost.’
It all sounds great. But a packed audience of critical friends had one objection: the sort of people desperately lacking access to justice won’t have a clue what ‘pre-action’ means.
The model’s lead author, Lord Justice Jonathan Baker, a veteran of the Family Division, was quick to take the blame. ‘I should apologise for naming it the pre-action model,’ he said. ‘It’s a lawyer’s thing. Let’s think about what we should call it.’ How about ‘early resolution model’, the Access to Justice Foundation’s Martha de la Roche proposed. That seemed to be the consensus, but the consultation is open to 19 September, so there is plenty of room for creativity.
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