As solicitors dealing with the County Court system we are well used to delays and issues with getting cases dealt with on a timely basis, but a Justice Committee meeting on 7th May 2024 laid bare the state of the country’s court system and the crippling problems within it.
“In 2024, a tracker poll published by YouGov found that less than half the population of England and Wales is confident in the judicial system.” “..the county court matters because the problems that it exists to resolve and the issues that it seeks to adjudicate on are extremely consequential for the people who experience them, affecting lives and livelihoods. I do not need to remind anyone sitting around the table that we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis. More people than ever before are struggling to make ends meet. People are living pay cheque to pay cheque.”
“In quarter four of 2023 the value of the vast majority of money claims, or claims for damages – for personal injury or otherwise-were worth less than £5,000. Those amounts might seem small to some people, but for many families – arguably, for most families-they are too large to lose. There is a great body of research that indicates how financial stress contributes to problems of mental health, suicidal ideation and all those things.”
“Compared with 2019, it takes 24.7 weeks longer for a fast track or multi track claim to reach trial. That is half a year-an additional half a year in five years. We are seeing far longer delays in a system with far fewer claims in it. That suggests administrative failure on a monumental scale.”
Matthew Maxwell Scott cited “We have law firms, legal expenses insurers, charities, road safety bodies, medical report organisations, Rehab firms; all the different people that you might use if you were making or perhaps defending a claim. As a consumer you can operate as a litigant in person. You can throw yourself on the mercy of the courts. Perhaps some of the encouragement for doing that is to blame for some of the problems we have now, because, understandably, people struggle with legal systems, My members re the sorts of people who will support you through the process and help you to make the claim. Obviously, they need claims to be successful to have a viable business. If claims do not come to court, ultimately they are not being paid for their work which means that they will not invest in the system. They will not invest in training, IT and all the rest of it because they cannot guarantee that they will have a successful business at the end of it. That means that people’s access to justice suffers, because they cannot get the support the need to go through the system.”
“These are moments of great personal significance for the individuals involved. Again in a personal injury context we are talking about people who have suffered injuries . Maybe those injuries are short-lived, but they can be extremely significant, with a life changing impact. In cases where an injury has resulted in death our members may even be representing bereaved families. The stakes are really high, for everyone who is involved in the civil justice system. As barristers we are really at the coalface in terms of how things are playing out on the ground, and we see a system that does not work effectively.”
The Justice Committee meeting gave details of courts losing papers, delays of weeks for courts to acknowledge receipt of papers and a court date and even court ceilings falling down.
Sorrymate continue to lobby to make much needed change to the court system to improve the outcomes for our clients.
