Senior civil judge renews call for online court for claims up to £25k

A proposal for an online court for money claims valued at up to £25,000 and "with minimum assistance from lawyers" is at the heart of Lord Justice Briggs’ final report, which was published this week.

The Deputy Head of Civil Justice said the new court would have “its own set of user-friendly rules”, and would eventually become the compulsory forum for resolving cases within its jurisdiction. On inception the court should be dealing with straightforward money claims valued at up to £25,000, the judge said.

The report makes recommendations on helping people who need assistance with online systems, and said complex and important cases should be transferred upwards to higher courts.

Lord Justice Briggs’ 299-page report contains more than 60 recommendations aimed at improving the structure of the civil courts. These include:

• Case Officers – a senior body of court lawyers and other officials should be tasked with assisting with certain functions currently carried out by judges, such as paperwork and uncontentious matters. They would be trained and supervised by judges, and decisions would be subject to reconsideration by judges on request by a party.
• Enforcement of Judgments and Orders – there should be a single court as the default court for the enforcement of the judgments and orders of all the civil courts (including the new Online Court). Lord Justice Briggs’ report said this should be the County Court, but there would “need to be a permeable membrane allowing appropriate enforcement issues to be transferred to the High Court, and special provision for the enforcement of arbitration awards, in accordance with current practice and procedure”. All enforcement procedures would be digitised, centralised and rationalised.
• Mediation/ADR – the report calls for the re-establishment of a court-based out of hours private mediation service in County Court hearing centres prepared to participate, along the lines of the service which existed prior to the establishment and then termination of the National Mediation Helpline. 
• Deployment of Judges – the principle should be that no case is too big to be resolved in the regions. “The current acute shortage of Circuit judges specialising in civil work in the County Court needs an urgent remedy,” the report said.
• Number of Courts and Future of the Divisions – there should be no general unification of the civil courts, Lord Justice Briggs said. The time had come for a decision about the future of the High Court’s Divisions, he added, but that was beyond the scope of the current review.
• District Registries and Regional High Court Trial Centres – the concept of the District Registry as a place for the issue of High Court proceedings will eventually be replaced by a single Portal for the issue of all civil proceedings, and should then be abolished.
• Routes of Appeal – there should in due course be a review of the question whether the recent reforms to the procedure of the Court of Appeal should be extended to cover appeals to the High Court and to Circuit Judges in the County Court, based upon better time and motion evidence than is currently available, and in the light of experience of the reforms in the Court of Appeal.
• Boundaries between jurisdictions – the Family Court should be given a shared jurisdiction (with the Chancery Division and the County Court) for dealing with Inheritance Act and disputes about co-ownership of homes. Lord Justice Briggs’ report added that there continued to be a case for convergence between the Employment Tribunal (and Employment Appeal Tribunal) and the civil courts, but the detail was a matter beyond the scope of this review.

Lord Justice Briggs was asked to carry out the Civil Courts Structure Review by the Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in July 2015.

On publishing his final report, he said: “It is for others to decide which of the…..recommendations should be implemented, and by what means.  In my view, if they are all substantially implemented, then the essentially high quality of the civil justice service provided by the courts of England and Wales will be greatly extended to a silent community to whom it is currently largely inaccessible, and both restored and protected against the weaknesses and threats which currently affect it.”

Chairman of the Bar, Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC, said: “Efforts to modernise the courts and improve efficiencies in our justice system are essential. It is surely time to make a proper investment in our civil justice system for the future, to provide justice for all. We shall study this report, which contains many innovative recommendations, carefully, not least to assess its impact on access to justice.”

However, she also warned that any moves towards an online court for claims of up to £25,000 “must avoid the risk of entrenching a system of two-tier justice whereby individuals opting to use a 'lawyerless' online court process could easily find themselves in litigation with big organisations which can afford to hire their own legal teams”.

The Bar chairman added: "Sir Michael Briggs is right to acknowledge that the success of the online court will depend critically on digital assistance for all those challenged by the use of computers, and on continuing improvement in public legal education.

"In reviewing these proposals, we must also assess what impact they may have on the world-renowned reputation of our legal system, which needs protecting more than ever in the current changing climate."