Lawyers have urged caution on Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and judiciary proposals for more digital courts and fewer court buildings.
The government pledged more than £700m to modernise civil courts and tribunals and more than £270m toward the criminal justice system, in a joint statement from the MoJ, Lord Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals, Transforming our Justice System.
It aims for all civil cases to be started online and for suitable cases to be dealt with entirely online, starting with lower value debt and damages claims and appeals to the social services and child support tribunals. However, the “entire process of civil money claims” will be automated and digitised by 2020, accounting for more than four-fifths of 1.6 million claims issued in the county courts and High Court each year, 83% of which are uncontested.
Specially trained case officers will handle basic case management and case progression to free up the judiciary in civil cases. The MoJ also envisages that “many” of the current 400 court and tribunal buildings will be closed over the next four years, since fewer buildings will be required.
Steve Hynes, director of the Legal Action Group, says: “The biggest barriers to access to justice remain financial and the government seems unwilling to address these.”
Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC, Chairman of the Bar, says it is a “laudable vision” but that the Bar has “serious concerns around plans to introduce online courts for all civil money claims by 2020”.
“There is a real risk of entrenching a two-tier justice system, providing a different type of justice to claimants and defendants, depending upon the size of the money claims in dispute.”
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