The justice system in England and Wales is on the brink of a huge surge of modernisation – a ‘fact’ we have, of course, heard many times before. Soon there will be cyber-courts, virtual hearings and electronic disclosure, video conferencing will become the de facto standard for dispute resolution both in and out of the courts, and a new litigation support services industry will be booming, just like in Singapore and Sydney. For quite some time, large commercial interests and enthusiastic individuals have valiantly attempted to wish this scenario into being by sheer force of will.
But now something has changed. Once again, large corporate interests are looking hopefully at this jurisdiction, and once again we have encouraging noises from the Government. But what we have not seen before is most of the UK’s top litigation support practitioners clubbing together in a tightly-focused common interest group and driving the whole thing forward.
