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"Judges would join the process only after these claims have gone through triage and resolution attempts by case officers..."

So wait, a non-legally trained "case officer" will attempt to make the parties settle to resolve their matter, then when a judge gets involved at the last minute (invariably to hear the matter at trial), he/she will be able to identify the legal issues and then make judgement in favour of one party or another.

How is that justice or an efficient streamlined system? How will that save costs? The courts will just be clogged up with cases waiting for a judge to adjudicate upon because only then will anyone be able to interpret and apply the law. How can an unqualified case worker give advice to the parties on the law and merits of a case during preliminary hearings which may then lead to early resolution?

If the case workers' sole remit is to deal with matters on paper (consent applications, setting down agreed directions, etc) then I agree it *might* help free up judges' time for bigger and more complex cases. But if these case workers will be given power to make what are, in effect, judicial decisions without the expertise or technical ability (which they eventually will due to scope creep), then this appears to be doomed for failure