Legal Village

The future of litigation is in our hands

Posted 29/01/2008 by Simon Davis

The generally positive reaction I have received personally from a range of practitioners who have read the report of the Commercial Court Working Party is most welcome, but it would have been disturbing, to put it mildly, had the reaction been otherwise.

The working party consisted of top commercial judges, the past and present presidents of the LSLA (Graham Huntley and I), the president of the commercial Bar and two of the foremost in-house practitioners in the country. The amount of work and thought which went into the report is obvious from its contents.

The need for more vigorous case management by the judiciary is a cornerstone of its recommendations. But if the reforms are going to work, our own profession needs to be more creative and proactive. Waiting for the court to exercise case management powers is not enough. It is up to us to propose innovative directions and to remind the court if necessary that the directions proposed are well within its powers.

The future of litigation is in our hands. I would not want control of litigation in any sense to be abdicated to the judge. For the moment, it is incumbent on us all to keep an eye on how the recommendations operate during the pilot.

If you have any comments, I am happy to receive any feedback at simon.davis@cliffordchance.com.