A senior figure at the Law Society has rounded on judges overseeing civil justice policy for saying nothing in public while the government legislates on fixed costs reforms.
James Perry, chair of the Society’s dispute resolution committee, told a conference today that members of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee ‘effectively keep stumm’ and had signed off new rules without saying anything about the reasons.
With Lord Justice Birss, deputy head of civil justice and member of the CPRC, in attendance to hear his speech, Perry said the judiciary had the ability and power to reject government reform if it has the potential to harm civil justice.
‘There needs to be more than a few points made in minutes of meetings by a few of the members,’ said Perry. ‘We need to see what each member ultimately thought. I would at least expect the judges and practitioners on the CPRC, as a bare minimum, to state openly what their own views are and confirm those views in writing particularly when they believe something is wrong with a rule change, and that they do not agree with the MOJs stance on a particular rule or policy.
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