Digitisation of the court system is adding to the delays plaguing the civil court system and undermining people’s access to justice, hundreds of solicitors have told the Law Society.
Responses to a survey of practitioners who have used the damages claims, public family law and probate portals has uncovered the extent of technical issues with the system and the impact of these on the delivery of justice, Chancery Lane said today. The survey, covering June and July this year, received 722 responses: 62% of respondents claimed that the portals had caused delays, impacting their cleints.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said that the seven-year-old court reform programme could boast many successes, such as the digital uptake of probate applications and the ability to conduct remote court hearings. 'However, it is important for HMCTS to learn from the problems in its systems, as well as its successes,' he said. 'Our findings show that more than half of solicitors surveyed do not believe the portals are efficient and effective in delivering justice.'
Three in five (62%) respondents reported delays in court proceedings as a result of the portals, which had emotionally impacted their clients. A third (34%) reported that increased costs have been passed on to clients, the Society said.
Factors contributing to the delays included timeliness, communication and technical issues along with the lack of HMCTS staff to deal with problems.
More than half (54%) of probate users said the online process is taking longer than the paper-based system, 29% experienced poor response times and limited staff knowledge, with 18% stating this meant there were delays in issuing grants.
Half (50%) of damages claims users reported that delays were impacting on clients and 24% said the process was burdensome.
Seven in 10 (70%) users of the Family Public Law portal reported technical errors and frequent breakdowns and 80% reported lack of timeliness of technical support.
Emmerson added: 'We know that modernisation is a work in progress, but this is having a real impact on clients, especially as these portals are often used at an already challenging and difficult time, such as managing the estate of a deceased loved one, handling a child protection matter or getting help with an accident that wasn’t their fault. The increased delays and associated uncertainty these portals have created are causing additional stress.
'Some of these issues have come about because there simply wasn’t sufficient engagement with the solicitor profession, the advice sector and members of the public when these systems were being designed,' he said.
He urged the government to take on board the Society’s recommendations for improvement. These include:
• Improved and consistent communication for those using online systems to help ease the backlogs by reducing demand on the court service.
• A user-led design and development process involving the public, legal professionals and the advice sector.
• A central resource containing information and guidance for users of each online court system.
• Software to improve communication between online court systems and solicitors’ case management systems.
• Robust data collection and transparency will aid continuous improvement of current and future online court systems.
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