Facelift – at a price

According to the Law Society’s Gazette of 6 November, the court service and the Department of Constitutional Affairs are considering three schemes for redeveloping the Royal Courts of Justice. Two schemes envisage the creation of a building for the Commercial, Admiralty and Technology and Construction Courts on the site of the Queen’s Building, the third option would be for a new Commercial Court to be built. The funding would be achieved from savings in the allocation of existing court premises, through a private finance initiative valued at between £70–100m and, controversially, by increases in court fees. The proposal comes at a time when a Law Society survey showed that one-third of solicitors say that clients are deterred from legal action because of the prohibitive level of court fees. Any further increase will renew the controversy over the Governments policy of the civil courts being self-funding.