"To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice..."

HHJ Paul Collins, speaking on Law in Action, states that "We are operating on the margins of effectiveness, and with further cuts looming we run the risk of bringing about a real collapse in the [County Court] service". Given the drive to move more and more business to the County Courts over the last 8 years it's about time someone said something.

As the BBC News Article points out: "County courts are no longer subsidised by the taxpayer. Instead, they are expected to generate all their income from fees charged to court users."
However, the courts' budgets are fixed by the government and although the courts more than covered their costs last year, the surplus raised from fees was spent on other services."

The first part of that I continue to find particularly appalling, as I have this vague idea that providing a way for disputes between citizens to be resolved is one of the fundamental reasons we have states in the first place. The fact that the courts now have "customers" is a fucking disgrace. And yes, they really do call them customers. I am occasionally tempted to scribble on the notice addressed to Customers in room TM101 of the RCJ ("what can we do for you today madam. Two bankruptcies, an order for sale, and approval of an IVA? Yes, we take visa.")

That the County Courts are heading for chaos, just as they are dealing with more and more complex and high value cases is certainly true. Even in the High Court, in the RCJ itself, some solicitors have taken to personally filing documents and obtaining a receipt as they go missing so often. Only the other day a hearing of mine in a London county court turned out, when we arrived, not to be the kind of hearing it said it was on the order telling us to to turn up, but something rather different. Reason: the order actually made by the judge going through the file (without a hearing) had been sent off to some shonky outfit with the contract for drawing up the formal version of the order, and what had emerged from them bore little or no resemblance to what he had actually ordered. This happens all the time. This after a decade of reforms supposedly intended to make the administration of justice more efficient. The (continuing) reforms to Legal Aid have undoubtedly had the result that people either simply don't bring good claims or represent themselves, which they tend to do very badly (though there are exceptions), thus not only failing to present their own case to its best but vastly extending the time and effort everyone else ends up spending on it. God alone knows what will happen in the High Court when/if the proposed move and semi-merger of the Commercial Court and the Chancery Division to the Rolls Building, and the various consequent changes suggested happen, let alone if the more drastic plans for the abolition of the Divisions (which allow for the people dealing with a case, both court staff and judiciary, to have a bit of a clue about what is involved in that kind of case) and the even more vague idea about the merger of the High and County Courts ever happen.

A Not-So-Young Man's Fancy Turns To Thoughts of Mud

Finally managed to deal with signing myself up for Glastonbury last night. Spent ridiculous amounts of time photographing myself with outstretched arm and dismissing the results, on the usual basis of doing things the lazy and rather rubbish way. God knows where the money is going to come from, but there's more than a month to worry about that.

Weep for this Generation

Prompted by Oursin I have just been poking around the Downing Street Petitions site. I finally broke at this one. Although I could have been convinced to sign up for this one.

The British Library one, which sparked Oursin's original visit, I happily signed, incidentally.

Lawks: One For The East Londoners

Shit. Building semi-collapse on Commercial Road. Thought the Mile End was busy outside. Any of youse work out what building this is?