Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

If I correctly heard and understood Lord Justice Briggs at the Law Society Civil Litigation Section Autumn Conference, the CIVIL justice part of the court system makes an annual PROFIT of about £75 million, which is used by the Government and the Ministry of Justice to subsidise the criminal and family courts. If that is correct, it would surely be seriously misleading for the Ministry to have referred in its explanation of this SI to reducing "taxpayers' subsidy of the court system by ensuring that fee income covers the cost of providing court services", as the ordinary reading of that is that fee income in civil cases goes towards the cost of civil court services. No ordinarily informed reader would guess that a civil litigant who has never encountered the criminal justice system or family courts system is paying court fees to subsidise both such systems. Sir Oliver Heald should make the position clear and, if it is as I understand it, issue a correction and apology. Absent that, I intend to raise the issue with my MP, so that a question may be asked in Parliament.

Your details

Cancel