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I'd wait and give Gove a chance. Apart from the Pro-Bono issue, I do not think there is anything in his speech that is controversial or untrue.

It is pointless in the Crown Court have the preliminary hearings and PCMH's done routinely in person in all cases. In the civil system, you fill in a directions questionnaire and get an order back. If necessary you can have an appointment or a telephone hearing. Why can't this be done in the criminal system?

Likewise in the Civil courts, there is scope for rationalisation. Many people (myself included) thought the world would end when the 2010-2013 court closures came in, but not a lot has changed in reality. There are some notable issues Southport County Court springs to mind, and some in the "Greater Manchester" area, but consensus is the local courts there were closed so as to fill the new build courts in Liverpool and Manchester resepctively.

Saying that, there are probably a few more courts (particularly in the London area) that are so close to another nearby court they are pointless.

There are other courts where they could close two and build a new one in the middle (which is something that didn't occur during the last round of closures, except a few cases where they moved Mags into County and vice versa).

As for under-utilisation, this to me is bad planning rather than anything else. If there are District Judges sat twiddling their thumbs in the County Court, why are they not being allocated more work? We have a single county court now, so there is no legal impediment to files being transferred to different courts (which always used to happen anyway, just unofficially). Interlocutory matters, telephone hearings, etc., don't religiously have to take place at the defendant individuals "home court".

And technology in the courts is still a joke. We've been using email now as a profession for what, 15 - 20 years? Yet if you email a court, somebody in the office prints it off and puts it in a file with all the correspondence, waiting to be handed to the judge! There is absolutely ZERO reason why this happens in this day and age.

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