Eval of Lord Woolf

• Lord woolf eval intro:

  • The civil procedure rules 1998 are the result of the woolf reforms ('access to justice' report). These rules govern all civil cases through the county and high court, starting with rule 1: overriding objective 'to deal with cases justly and at a proportionate cost' (as amended by lord jackson in 2013)
• Problems with lord:

  • During the 1990s, civil justice needed modernisation
  • 1995 survey - 75% of people were dissatisfied with the overall experience of civil justice
  • (slow, unwelcoming, complicated, outdated)
  • Lord woolf was tasked with reviewing this huge area of law.
• Problems with lord woolf:

  • He hoped to find a system that was fair in treatment, adequately resourced, reasonably priced, understandable and effective.
  • Unfortunately, he found a system that costs outweighed value
  • E.g, huge delays, adversarial, inequality of bargaining power and overall complicated.
• Key solutions lord woolf eval:

  • 303 recommendations.
  • These reforms led to: a three track system, this allows for talior made procedures that proportionately reflect the value and complexity of a claim to ensure the overriding objective is met.
  • Secondly, a greater use of ADR to reduce the number of cases in court, which will avoid people paying unnecessary costs, dealing with adversarial nature and current delays and able to maintain relationships.
  • July 22 proposal has led to compulsory mediation for small claims.
• Solution - increased judical management powers

  • incentivises parties to key cases on track which should help to reduce delays and in turn mitigate the inequalities of bargaining power
  • Currently exists when comparing richer parties.
  • A unified procedure - this makes it more straightforward if a case is transferred from one court to another.
• Simplified language - lord woolf eval:

  • law easier to understand for lay parties, particularly litigants in person within the small-claim tracks.
  • Removes the legal barrier which is currently dominated and enforced by lawyers and legal lingo.
  • Pre-action protocol to help streamline cases, these have helped to ensure that set timetables are met and that parties are penalised for failing to meet deadlines.
• Simplified language - lord woolf eval:

  • Ensured the sharing of information are earlier stages in the process which can often lead to a more productive dialogue between the parties.
  • Offers to settle has led to a higher rate of out of court settlements (80%)
  • Reduce the workload of the courts and reduce delays.
• Lord Woolf eval - success:

  • reforms have improved the culture of the system as it now encourages more cooperation between the parties, delays have been reduced and out of court settlements have increased.
• failure - lord woolf eval:

  • judges are not using powers as much as had hoped for, ADR courts remain under resourced and the biggest issue is costs have increased, due to pre-action protocols, requiring parties to be ‘trial ready’ at much earlier stages, which professor Zander labels ’front loading’ of costs.