The Woolf Reforms

The Woolf Reforms

England was made a democratic state as far back as 1215 AD, with many social changes taking place with time. Simultaneously, the legal system also underwent many reforms and changes. In its most basic sense, common law in England and Wales, comprises of judges presiding in courts, hearing the facts before them, and deciding the cases by using a combination of precedents set forth in earlier cases and their own legal and common sense. The legal over-riding and binding court is the Supreme Court of the UK, which holds authority over every other court in UK and Wales.

The Woolf Reforms were introduced by Lord Harry Kenneth Woolf, PC, FBA, in 1999. He chaired the committee that aimed to reform civil law. At the time these new reforms were chaired, civil litigation had become a drastically slow and cumbersome process, with cases being held up for an indefinite period of time. In addition, going to court meant expense…there would be both court and solicitor fees, and yet, the result was not guaranteed. In short, after all the tedious and expensive process, the winning of the case was not guaranteed. When the then existing laws were reviewed, Lord Woolf wanted something different from the civil courts of England and Wales. That something different was debated upon and published by the committee in a formal publication called The Civil Procedure Rules, 1999, and they basically contained two salient features:

1 The UK and Wales civil justice system was accessible to the general masses without the cumbersome clauses intervening; and

2 The rules were kept simple and open, so no false ambiguities could defer justice.

The Woolf Reforms were not introduced overnight. In 1995 a survey was conducted by the National Consumer Council on the level of satisfaction of the judicial system. It revealed that 75% of the cases were dissatisfied with the whole judicial system. The reasons cited for this extreme dissatisfaction were that the judicial system was slow, cumbersome, and expensive, with little or no fair play. It seemed to be a system with no rules. Earlier in 1998, the Civil Justice Review had tried to make changes to minimize the effects of delayed litigation. Lord Woolf was commissioned to review the system in 1994, and presented his survey as a Report called Access to Justice in 1996. In his report, Lord Woolf claimed the same findings that the National Consumer Council had found out- that the civil courts were a battlefield with little or no rules applying, and the defendants and claimants found the process too lengthy, tiring, and expensive, with uncertainty over the outcome.

The Woolf Reforms were introduced finally on 26th April 1999, and their area of jurisdiction extended to the land following English Law. This was generally the UK territory and Wales. It excluded Scotland