The majority of litigants who use the county court small claims procedure are satisfied with the way their cases are dealt with, according to a report, Small Claims Procedures in County courts in England and Wales, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council, the Lord Chancellor's Department and the Office of Fair Trading. The main criticism was that six months after a hearing, fewer than 33 per cent of plaintiffs had received payment. The report comes only months after the small claims limit was raised from £1,000 to £3,000. It was designed to assess how effectively the small claims procedure fulfils its stated aims of providing an inexpensive, less legally complex resolution of disputes.
IT use levels off but 95 per cent of users are upgrading
Computer use has reached saturation point among US lawyers, but nearly all small law firms that use IT are upgrading the hardware they have, according to a survey by the American Bar Association. The association’s annual survey of automation among law firms with fewer than 20 lawyers found that computer use has levelled off at […]