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We know how the court modernisation programme for England and Wales will end. Some equivalent of George W Bush will proclaim on a stand in for the USS Abraham Lincoln that the mission has been triumphantly accomplished. The reality in the courts, as in world politics, is likely to be more complex. One reason that … Continue reading Court Modernisation: research, consultancy and measurement
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service has replied today to the high level House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the access to justice evaluation of its court modernisation programme. Read it and hear the sound of one hand clapping. The command of the PAC was for the HMCTS ‘to write to the Committee … Continue reading Access to Justice and Modernising the Courts: the sound of one hand clapping
Remember that old song of Bob Dylan’s about Hurricane Carter? It contains the lines – ‘the authorities … put him in a prison cell the one time he could a-been The Champion of the world.’ They have intermittently resonated around my head for over 40 years. The words came back as I walked down to St Paul’s … Continue reading ODR in the courts: in prison the one time it could have been the champion of the world
Happy the few who could attend Victoria University’s Sir Zelman Cowen Centre symposium on Online Dispute Resolution: the State of the Art this week. The afternoon Melbourne temperature was reported as a balmy 20C or 70F. Meanwhile, here in London, it got quite close to freezing. And not only the weather was better in Australia. … Continue reading ODR: summer in Melbourne is winter in London
What happened when the grumpy old commentator made his way to the Ministry of justice to meet the altogether more youthful and enthusiastic staff of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service at a ‘Public User Event’ this morning? Well, certainly not a Pauline moment of conversion and a heaven-rending shout of repentance. Nor, however, a … Continue reading HM Courts and Tribunals: today’s public user event