Business Will Boom

In making out a case for an additional eight High Court judges, the Lord Chancellor predicted a substantial increase in the workload of the High Court arising from the implementation of the Human Rights Act and the Immigration and Asylum Bill. In the Family Division he anticipated that Human Rights points will be taken in anything up to 50% of cases, cases stated from magistrates’ courts on matters of law or jurisdiction could increase by as much as 70%, whilst he predicted increases of 100% and 65% in respect of judicial reviews in criminal and immigration cases respectively. Pressure on judge power in the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal was expected to arise both from the Human Rights Act and appeals testing the civil justice reforms.