As recently as February 2013, Justice Minister Damian Green empathised that there was a specific failure to exploit technology in the legal sector. Carl’s strong business orientation is at the forefront of his practice and he particularly relies on technology within the courtroom environment. The notion of Digital Working is something he embraces and he recognises the link to cutting firm expenditure.

The Justice Secretary’s recent announcement bringing forward the implementation of Best Value Tendering is not welcomed in quite the same light. “Tendering for contracts is an absolute nightmare for everyone”, he says, and this will inevitably result “in the lowest possible price for the service.” He quotes on speculation likening Eddie Stobbart Law operating a Crime ‘Tesco Law’ service and its worrying implications for smaller practices. He also recognises the trend emerging of ‘safety in numbers’ to fight against the emergence of a potential Eddie Stobbart Law firm.

“One has to wonder what incentive there will be to promote justice and quality as opposed to price and profit”, Carl asks.
But he also accepts that digital working will definitely help to cut costs. “If you can have typists that work from home, if solicitors don’t need their travel expenses paying because they can go to a court closer to their home and access their files, dictation and email via iPad then that will hopefully save us substantial amounts.”

The importance of tablet devices in day to day criminal proceedings is empathised more. Carl states he is using his iPad in his current trial to access digital case files via his remote access case management system. All of his papers are scanned and emailed over to his iPad. He rarely drags around big volumes of books and case papers because “everything is there in a convenient bundle”, but only on the proviso “as long as you have a power source.” In 2013 he has not carried one hard copy book because their digital working allows for electronic copies to be accessed.

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The specific and immediate technology proposals of the Swift and Sure white paper are just the beginning. The white paper makes it clear that: “Our reforms will provide the impetus for the next stage of the CJS Efficiency Programme.” Read the full story

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There was rare consensus between the government and the opposition at the start of the ninth day of line-by-line consideration of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment bill at Committee stage in the House of Lords last week.

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In the hiatus following the cancellation of family contracts last autumn two new family fee schemes, due for implementation, were postponed. The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has now announced their belated introduction from 9 May. The new schemes are: Read the full story

We haven’t, which might strike you as odd. Read the full story

Every quarter we release a new version of iLaw. This is mainly because the Legal Services Commission has instituted a raft of changes but also because we have added some good stuff that we think you will like. These service packs come out on a disc in time honoured fashion and your IT bod – or the person in the office nominated to be them for a day – gets to run around updating all the PC’s in your office. Read the full story