In July 2016 Lord Justice Briggs (as he then was) published his Civil Courts Structural Review. One of the main recommendations was the establishment of an online court to deal with money claims of sums up to £25,000. The proposal was widely welcomed and in February 2017 the government moved to implement it in the Prisons and Courts Bill. But the Bill fell because of the June 2017 General Election. Now it is up and running again in the Courts and Tribunals (Online Procedure) Bill which had its 2nd Reading in the House of Lords on 14 May.
Whereas the original concept was limited to low level money claims, the new Bill is much more ambitious. Its provisions will apply to ‘specified kinds of proceedings’ defined in clause 2 as whatever kind of civil proceedings, family proceedings or proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal, the Upper Tribunal, employment tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal are specified by the ‘appropriate minister’ (Cl.2(1)).
