New courts for old, but is justice being served?
At the recent Lord Mayor’s Dinner for Her Majesty’s Judges, the Lord Chief Justice spoke enthusiastically about the establishment of a ‘bespoke financial and business court for the 21st century’ in the City of London and the progress being made in the current courts and tribunals modernisation programme. But, asks Paul Magrath, after the closure of more than 230 local courts around the country since 2010, and with many others struggling to cope with even basic technology, how easy will it be for ordinary people to get justice?