In late December, the Commercial Court Long Trials Working Party chaired (latterly) by Mr Justice Aikens delivered its Christmas present to the litigation community. Like a much-loved aunt, the committee was no doubt hoping for more than the cautious welcome the gift has received to date, but expectations might have been too high – this was the proverbial large, brightly-wrapped box which, when the paper was torn off, turned out to contain a slightly disappointing gift in kit form and no allen key with which to assemble it.
One should not be churlish (although litigators can be the stroppy teenagers of the legal world) – the Aikens committee was never going to produce a shiny new rule book. Realistically, the best that could have been hoped for was a recognition of the issues that needed to be addressed and the urgency of doing so.
