Report comment

County Courts were established in 1846. Judges used to go on assize, and stay in sometimes grand judges' lodgings. Means of transport have changed dramatically since then, and we also have workable alternatives to transport: we will all be familiar with telephone hearings in civil cases (even including, in my experience, summary judgment applications) and there is no principled reason why online hearings are not possible. By holding out for the old ways of local well staffed courts and lawyer representation, lawyers' risk their views as being dismissed as reactionary and irrelevant. Instead we should argue for better (cheaper) and effective ways of administering civil justice, including new technology, lawyerless hearings, cases 'heard' on paper only, and so on. There is a place for lawyers, but stoutly defending that place as being the same now as it was 20, 30 or 40 years ago won't achieve anything. And don't bang on about being a profession: professions are closed shops established to keep prices high, and government changes have done away with all that, even if regulatory oversight hasn't really caught up with these changes.