Sir Hugh Laddie likened the English civil justice system to a Rolls-Royce – high in quality but too expensive. ( Legal Week, 25 May; Top lawyers back Laddie costs salvo, 8 June). His argument is that Lord Woolf’s reforms did not go far enough and, in particular, that we should consider abandoning the adversarial system in favour of an inquisitorial system, such as those which prevail in Germany and France.
I think this would be a mistake. Not only would it be counter-cultural, but we would no longer have a business-friendly system that achieves a high level of settlements and that many foreign companies are prepared to submit to.
