A damning indictment of the proposed business court has come from the 1,000-strong Chancery Bar Association, which warns that it will fail to be the planned “flagship” court for the business community.
In a letter to Sir Andrew Morritt, the Chancellor and head of the Chancery Division, the barristers express concern about inadequate and small courtrooms and lack of proper security arrangements.
Contracts are to be signed imminently before they have been adequately consulted, they complain in a letter signed by David Halpern, QC, and Carolyn Walton. “We consider that this makes a mockery of the supposed consultation process and contrasts sadly with the extensive and proper consultations which apparently took place before the Royal Courts of Justice was built in the mid-19th century.”
The letter questions whether the design will “serve as a workable court building at all, let alone as the state-of-the-art ‘flagship’ business court which is apparently intended to serve as a global choice for the business community”.
In a series of “very grave concerns” they comment on the inadequate access, waiting and negotiation space, court working space and security.
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They say that there are too few large courts and the “standard” courts are too narrow; the lifts cannot cope with the 300 people who will use the building; the 44 consultation rooms to service 29 courts, one third being only 8ft wide; and lack of security making the court a “very easy target for terrorists”.
The plan is that the Chancery judges will move to the proposed Holborn court along with the commercial court judges who are now housed in St Dunstan’s House in Fetter Lane. The Chancery barristers accept that their existing building is not ideal but say that it is “considerably better” than that proposed.
Last week Lord Falconer of Thoroton told The Times that the new court was “very, very important”. The aim was to “provide a court which is one that commercial clients regard as a good place to solve their disputes”. Much work had gone into the plans and he was sure that the views of the Chancery Bar would have been taken into account.