Accessible, Affordable, and Accurate Civil Justice - Challenges Facing the English and Other Modern Systems

Modern legal systems, including the English, emphasise the need to promote mediation, uphold arbitration (which bypasses the courts), and achieve settlements. These are regarded as preferable to lengthy court proceedings culminating in trial. In England the Jackson reforms of April 2013 aim to control costs and stream-line proceedings. However, it is here argued that the challenges of promoting affordability and accessibility must not be permitted to undermine accuracy and that public adjudication in the courts of civil claims, including clarification of points of law, remain important for the vitality and health of the legal system. Inaccurate judicial decision-making would be unacceptably rough justice. It will be shunned. Furthermore, although mediation and arbitration have their place, both have their dangers, if they cause public adjudication to become too scarce or unreliable. For neither mediation nor arbitration involves public judgment of disputed matters of fact and law