The Government’s Plans on Civil Justice
| Author | Michael Zander |
| Date | 01 May 1998 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.00149 |
| Published date | 01 May 1998 |
REPORTS
The Government’s Plans on Civil Justice
Michael Zander*
The Labour Government’s plans for reform of civil justice and of legal aid were
announced by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, in his keynote address at
the Law Society’s Annual Conference held in Cardiff on Saturday 18 October
1997.
1
In summary, the package of reforms of civil justice proposed by Lord
Woolf
2
was to be implemented; there was to be a radical shake-up of legal aid and,
in particular, legal aid for most money claims would be abolished on the ground
that even poor people could be expected to make conditional fee agreements. Lord
Irvine’s speech was given just two days before the publication of the Middleton
Report.
3
Sir Peter Middleton, a former Treasury mandarin, had been asked by Lord
Irvine to conduct a lightning review
4
of the existing reform proposals on civil
justice and legal aid and to advise. His 83-page report broadly endorsed the Woolf
package. It also endorsed many of the plans for reform of legal aid proposed by the
previous Government, including in particular, a system to achieve control of
overall expenditure.
5
The writer has consistently opposed the Woolf reforms,
6
though that critical
position has been a somewhat lonely one. By contrast, the Labour
Government’s plans for reform of civil legal aid have been widely criticised
by lawyers’ and consumers’ bodies alike. This note is an assessment of the
Government’s proposals on civil justice.
7
In these reforms the Government is
simply adopting the ongoing work on implementation that was put in hand by
the previous Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay, and that was continued by Lord
The Modern Law Review Limited 1998 (MLR 61:3, May). Published by Blackwell Publishers,
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382
* Law Department, London School of Economics.
1 The importance of the speech was emphasised by the fact that it was issued first not in Cardiff to legal
correspondents, but in London to political journalists. The speech is to be found on the Internet at
http://www.open.gov.uk/lcd/indec.htm.
2 Lord Woolf’s proposals on ‘Access to Justice’ (referred to below collectively as ‘Woolf’), were made
in two stages: the Interim Report in June 1995; the Final Report in July 1996, both available from the
Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD). They are also available on the Internet at: http://
www.open.gov.uk.lcd.justice.cjdnet.htm. For detailed coverage see (1995) 14 Civil JQ 231 and
(1996) 15 Civil JQ 273.
3 ‘Review of Civil Justice and Legal Aid’ (referred to below as ‘Middleton’), available from the LCD.
For a summary see Legal Action, December 1997 8–9.
4 He was appointed in May 1997 and was asked to report by the end of September.
5 For reactions to the speech see Law Society’s Gazette, 20 October 1997 18–24; Legal Action,
December 1997 4, 8–9 and Legal Action Group, ‘Government Policy on Legal Aid and the Middleton
Report: Preliminary Briefing Paper’, November 1997.
6
See especially Michael Zander, ‘The Woolf Report: Forwards or Backwards for the new Lord
Chancellor?’ (1997) 16 Civil JQ 208. For Lord Woolf’s response see ‘Medics, Lawyers and the Courts’
(1997) 16 Civil JQ 302 and for the writer’s rejoinder see ‘Woolf on Zander’ (1997) 147 New LJ 767.
7 There are, however, many related topics that for reasons of space cannot be addressed properly or at
all. For instance, although some of the recommendations of the Middleton Report are referred to, no
attempt is made to evaluate the Report as such. The Government’s proposals on legal aid and
contingency fees will be the subject of a note by the author in a forthcoming edition of this journal.
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