The Press Wednesday, December 14, 1932. Towards Cheaper Justice.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20729, 14 December 1932, Page 10

The Press Wednesday, December 14, 1932. Towards Cheaper Justice.

I The appointment by the Lord Chaiij cellor of a committee to suggest means of expediting and cheapening proceedings in the English Supreme Court, announced in the cable news, is the result of an agitation for cheaper law which has been going on for more than two years. Though the Royal declaration " nulli negabimus justifiam " has been accepted as a guiding principle of English justice, Lord Darling's remark that " the English law, like the "Ritz Hotel, is open to everybody" is perhaps a fairer statement of the actual position. In an address to the Cambridge Law Society a few years ago, Lord Justice Scruttou referred to a case then before the House of Lords iu which £4OOO worth of damage was involved and the costs of which had already exceeded £150,000. This is probably an extreme instance; but the fact remains that the possibility of costly delays and appeals tends to make litigation a virtual monopoly of wealthy corporations. It is not merely the disturbing possibility of justice being denied to poor litigants that makes reform necessary. Industry and commerce, despite the existence since 1594 of a special Commercial Court, have still much to gain from a speeding up of legal processes. It was largely to meet this need that the Rules Committee of the Supreme Court drew up the New Procedure Rules which came into force in May of this year. • Though the New Rules are not compulsory and do not apply to libel, slander, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, or breach of promise, they are probably the hlost important contribution to the simplification of legal procedure since the Judicature Act of 1873. The Rules create a New Procedure list in which the proceedings may be placed at the option of the plaintiff on issue of the ■writ, or, if he does not exercise his option, at that of the defendant on appearance to the writ. The New List. is taken by two special judges sitting continuously,, delivery of proceedings is accelerated* a great variety of preliminary matters is disposed of by the judge, and an effort is made to fix the exact date of hearing a reasonable time in advance. Moreover, the judge can decide that a matter be tried " with " or without a jury as in his discretion "he may think fit," limit the number of expert witnesses, order that particular facts be provided by affidavit, and "record any consent of the parties "either wholly excluding their right " of appeal, or limiting it to the Court " of Appeal, or limiting it to questions "of law only." Further, he may order any question involving expert knowledge to bo referred to ft referee, though the referee's report need not be accepted by the parties. These tentativo reforms probably indicate the main lines of enquiry which will be pursued by the Lord Chancellor's Committee; and their working should show whether it is desirable to extend their scope and make them more binding. The Lord Chancellor's Committee will almost certainly give serious attention to the proposals frequently made for dispensing with juries in all civil cases, for abolishing one or other of the appellate tribunals, and for the entire exclusion of expert witnesses and the submission of all technical questions to a referee. The Committee's report might bo taken ! as a convenient starting point for an attempt to cheapen and simplify legal procedure in New Zealand and some of the other Dominions.