Woolf Reforms: Significant Changes To The Civil Justice System

The Woolf reforms introduced significant changes to the civil justice system as they sought to deal with the problems of cost, delay and complexity that wrought the civil justice system prior to his recommendations. Significant changes were implemented after Lord Woolf’s Access to Justice in 1996. His recommendations form the basis of important changes to civil litigation. In an attempt to reduce the cost of litigation and encourage the early settlement of disputes, Woolf introduced the use of pre-action protocols, the track system and encouraged the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Part 36 offers to settle. Eighteen years after the implementation of reforms, it is necessary to assess whether Woolf was successful in achieving

This can be confirmed my LJ Jackson’s preliminary report on costs which revealed that instead of reducing costs of litigation, there has been an increase. This is as a result of the pre-action protocols and ADR which are suggested to have frontloaded costs onto cases which would have settled before reaching court regardless. Early exchange is useless if it significantly increases the costs and makes minimal difference to the terms of settlement. Another issue that has surfaced is satellite litigation. This is when after a legal dispute has been resolved; the parties enter into separate litigation as to the amount of legal costs that should be paid by the losing party, increasing costs.
Therefore while there has been an increase in early settlement, a key objective – reducing costs- has not been met. To complete the Woolf scheme it was necessary to introduce further reforms to preserve the gains of the reforms, by exploring cost control measures, whilst ensuring that swift justice. The Jackson Report made an effort in this regard and illustrates the failures of Woolf by further revising the issue of cost and providing further