The outcome of the EU referendum has given the legal profession a heaven-sent opportunity to save our courts.
The senior judiciary should support overwhelming hostility at the grassroots to wholesale closures. Anyone who studies the Law Society’s excellent review of the government’s case can see immediately that it is based on a false premise.
Courts are there to accommodate cases. A two-day case may be listed and settle at the last moment. It is ludicrous to assess the use of that court on the basis that it was empty for two days. The point is that it had to be available.
Moreover, the Society’s argument of inaccessibility by users by drastically reducing supply was never answered.
The long and probably impossible task of disposing of the unwanted courts is hardly under way. What a fatuous exercise it all is.
The public interest should be a priority. Apart from anything else, it seems likely that the resources allocated for the court closure programme may be needed elsewhere during the difficult months and possibly years ahead as we extricate ourselves from the EU.
John Greenwood, Chippenham, Wiltshire
