Report on the State of Civil Justice in England

Abstract

The report draws attention to the main problems and trends in the administration of civil justice in England and Wales, and provides empirical information about the performance of the court system. The main problem facing court users is the cost of legal services, which is unpredictable, has no upper limit, and can be disproportionate to the value of the dispute. As a result, access to justice is restricted to the rich. The introduction of conditional fee agreements over a decade ago sought to address the problem by providing litigants (mainly personal injury claimants) risk-free access to court. But this system created unsustainable distortions of its own, and proposals to reform it are un..