The Justice Committee report on ‘Work of the County Court’, published at the end of July, did not pull any punches. ‘Dire’ and ‘dysfunctional’—and that was only page one! The inherent tendency to proceed in the High Court is utterly justifiable. The lower court is ‘chronically underfunded’—a condition I cannot see changing this decade.
Justice denied?
Delays are getting longer too. One fascinating anonymous submission of evidence appended to the Justice Committee’s report pointed out that claims brought by private parking companies swamp the court, with bulk litigation firms issuing approximately 8,000 claims a week, every week. Might the burden be alleviated by redirecting parking disputes to a traffic tribunal? A claimant on the current rules could secure a default judgment at a cost of £35, while a hapless defendant needs to lay out ten times as much to get a judgment set aside. This anomaly was identified in the Enforcement Review published earlier this year.
Delay
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