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I am trying to litigate a case at present as cheaply as I can. The judge required us to attend a hearing even though the rules allow it to be done on the paper - we had suggested directions. On the day he said he had hoped th eother side would attend (yet we had told his clerk by email the other side was not attending) so I spent 4 hours of my time, probably more like 5 getting there, speaking (briefly) and getting back to the office for something that could have been decided with none of that time spent. I had also politely suggested a telephone hearing too - also allowed in the rules. The other side had agreed to all this too. Anyway I turned up and my poor client has had to pay - they are paying monthly (my first case where the court fee was higher than my fee in writing the Particulars of Claim and claim form and letter before action).

I settle cases all the time without litgating. Most of my work in this area is dispute resolution. I spend hours telling clients it is pointless and expensvie to sue and usually I am right. IN a sense the courts only see the very tip of a massive ice berg in terms of commercial and IP disputes.

Also I don't think the systems and forms are easy for clients (or even me at times). On the case above the judge's clerk said I should have sent a skeleton argument - I felt dreadful but when I read the whole special set of rules again for a CMC there seemed no reference to there being a need for one as the bundle had everything in.

I would favour for smaller cases more on line resolution of disputes purely on the paperwork unless one or other side objects to that. We use that for domain name dispute resolutions and plenty of general disputes on sites like Amazon and Ebay. It isn't a perfect substitute to oral hearings etc but it would work better.

We also need to change family law perhaps so much of it is all done on line by email with only hearings where it is really necessary.

Some of the newer rules add to costs. In my "cheap" case above i have already spent about 3 hours alone on costs forms but given than 80% of disputes even where you sue settle before a hearing that up front cost is a waste of time.

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