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Jackson review reviewed

This report is a laudable attempt to grapple with the difficult issue of litigation costs. However, this is not an area where a one size fits all approach will work, as is helpfully acknowledged in the report. Large, complex cases are always expensive and therefore require a different approach, but there is already a vast array of case management machinery available to judges. Ultimately however many new rules are introduced it always comes back to the judge’s ability to manage a case effectively. Practitioners should always be receptive to change and improvement but we shouldn’t be thrown off course by a couple of cases in which costs may appear to have been disproportionate. If we want to continue to have a court system which, at its highest level is efficient, fair and the envy of many other jurisdictions, that will come at a price. This is not to encourage complacency but to recognise that we have a system that works well in higher value complex cases.

13-May-2009

5:17 pm