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At the heart of the problem lies Woolf's so-called "reforms", and Lord Justice, you know very well, that the time, the report was promulgated, the Middleton Report was also promulgated, but no one took any notice of that, because it involved a considerable amount of investment in the system, and, Barristers in particular, presumably, thought that, the lower end, would be put out of business, by having for example, interactive computer systems in court, whereas, in reality, the Junior Bar, has been put out of business, by the Legal Aid "Reforms". You will also be aware, from reading your Legal Addition, that the considerable expansion in the Bar, came in the early 1970s, when Family Law came into scope. Again, if you read your Legal History, you will be aware, that opportunity availed itself, of making Family Law, pay for itself, through the Statutory Charge (there was no reason at all why a percentage could not be put on top of this, as a sort of indirect tax, the provision of future legal services (ditto, Personal Injury Claims)".

The only way back now, in my opinion, is to re-invoke properly, the principles of Maintenance and Champerty, and envisaging the explosion of LIP's provide for proper resources within the system, as per, Middleton, quite rightly, foresaw would be necessary (when one considers, that the Criminal System, though also snowed under, was functioning perfectly well, with trained clerical staff "in-house" until fairly recently, when Blair got his hands on it, with the Squeegee Merchant approach to using the Criminal Courts, for Civil Enforcement.)

I suspect, that the reason that, Personal Injury was taken out scope anyway, was that the Legal Aid Certificates, were being used like insurance policies should be used (Legal Expenses Insurance Policies, for example, which never now pay out, and never follow the Legal Expenses Insurance Directive 1990), which was, simply to investigate liability, and force a settlement with what were at the time, more ethical Insurance Companies. This supposedly cost Insurance Companies money, although the horrific waste of resources that has ensued as a result of these reforms and the Access To Justice Act 2000, has actually and effectively, had been defrayed, throughout the Civil Justice System (and in Social Costs as well).

There is no doubt, that Green Form worked well, (albeit the 24 Hour day, that could well have been, better "policed" (whether by the Law Society at the time, all Government Auditors), and the Legal Aid Certificate System also worked well. It also sifted, shit (and indeed, such antisocial non-public interest) claims, like people falling off Bar stools drunk, who wanted to claim, at a very early stage.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong thereafter, with the middle and upper brackets of need, being met by properly resourced Civil Justice Centres with a proper Administrative Staff (you will of course know of and have experienced, the Vexatious Litigants List, which kept the very worst claims from appearing in open court), who can, manage most litigants expectations.

I suspect, that such further "reforms" would need to be counteracted by Scale Fees, (properly remunerated) , or no order for costs at all.

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