A Tynwald select committee is inviting evidence from members of the public of their experience of time wasting by advocates in civil proceedings.
The members are Brenda Cannell MHK, Tony Wild MLC and John Houghton MHK who serves as committee chairman.
Mr Houghton explained: ‘The committee would welcome summaries from members of the public regarding what they deem to be deliberate delays and deficiencies by advocates in the course of their handling of civil legal proceedings. These are practices I believe regularly lead to years of wasted time, involve many hours of an advocate’s time and incur unnecessary additional costs.’
Mr Houghton has been especially exercised about the level of advocates’ fees charged in civil cases funded by legal aid, a situation that has prompted him to comment: ‘I have no doubt legal aid regularly is squandered in this area [of case management].’
Against a background of protracted and costly legal proceedings experienced by a number of his constituents Mr Houghton is calling for advocates’ case management practices to be conducted ‘in a more proactive and efficient way’ and, to this end, the select committee will be tasked to identify ‘the core reasons’ of his concerns.
The committee will not re-open any cases on their merits, but will focus solely on the process of the preparation of cases between issuing of proceedings and the date of the trial.
Submissions should be sent to the Clerk of the Committee by Wednesday May 16th 2012. It will be assumed respondents are content for their response to be published.
