Civil justice project

Future of civil justice

Our future of civil justice project is examining how well the digitisation of civil justice is working. It’s led by our Legal Services Committee.

Since 2016, under the HMCTS Court Reform Programme, digitisation and technological developments within the civil justice system have been wide ranging. In addition, various pilots and projects have been introduced by the Civil Justice Council and the Ministry of Justice.

To date there has been a piecemeal approach to the digitisation of the civil jurisdiction. Through this project we’re gathering evidence and opinions from civil practitioners to identify what works well and areas for improvement so we can work with HMCTS and the Ministry of Justice on future plans.

Scope of the project

The future of civil justice project covers cases before:

• the County Court
• the High Court (excluding the family division and the administrative court),
• the Court of Appeal (civil division), and
• certain tribunals and their associated upper/appeal tribunal (including employment, First-tier Tribunal [property] and First-tier Tribunal [tax])

The digitisation reforms, pilots and projects we are considering include:

• the online civil money claims (OCMC) project – an online portal to streamline low level civil claims
• the damages claims project – an online service allowing registered legal professionals to issue and respond to a claim for damages on behalf of a client on MyHMCTS
• the disclosure pilot, and
• work on pre-action protocols

In June 2024 a number of barristers took part in one-to-one discussions exploring the current issues in relation to digitisation in the civil jurisdiction. In the next phase of the project, we’ll be inviting barristers to join focus group discussions to gather more views and ideas. Look out for invitations to join.