Online courts take the stage

The Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls commissioned Lord Justice Briggs to review the civil dispute resolution structure in England and Wales in order to increase access to justice. Although Briggs LJ’s review, known as the Civil Court Structure Review (Interim and Final Reports), considered a wide range of matters, his single most radical proposal was the introduction of an online court (OC) to handle more modest disputes. In Briggs LJ’s estimation, according to his Interim Report , the OC ‘offers the best available prospect of providing access to justice for people and small businesses of ordinary financial resources’. Although the forthcoming general election has meant that the Prisons and Courts Bill, which seeks to implement some of these key reforms (including the formation of a new online procedural rule committee), has been dropped, work on structuring and piloting aspects of the OC continues.