A leading judge has called for a second wave of civil justice reforms, encouraging better use of IT, and greater efforts to promote UK legal services internationally.

Mr Justice Vos said the UK’s law and legal system are highly respected overseas, but ‘not enough is done to capitalise on the commercial advantages’ of this.

The former Bar Council chair was delivering a speech entitled ‘The role of judges in the success of Uk plc’ to an audience at accountancy firm KPMG.

He welcomed the ‘long overdue’ move of the commercial court into the Rolls Building, but said he would like to see a ‘Woolf II’ reform to keep the country’s civil legal system ‘out in front’ of other jurisdictions.

Part of that reform, he said, should be more efficient and extensive use of IT, and electronic issue and handling processes.

Vos said using computers in courts and electronic filing of court documents should ‘be the norm’.

‘How absurd it is for solicitors to prepare all their documents on a computer system, print them out, file them at court, and then only send them by email when specifically asked,’ he said.

He suggested a major procedural overhaul of court documents, including pleadings, witness statements and expert reports, noting that ‘many of these documents have been allowed to become so lengthy that they are never read’.

Vos also said more steps should be taken to reduce the length of court hearings, particularly trials, using mandatory trial timetables.

He called for action to promote the UK’s legal profession, which he said ‘drives’ exports of UK professional services generally and ‘is a huge invisible asset’.

‘UK legal services promote exports of other professional services, because once a UK-based law firm is involved in an international project or transaction, they tend to recommend or work with UK accountants, management consultants, engineers, architects, banks, financial services firms, and many other associated professional providers,’ he said.

Vos said the UK’s professionals are better trusted and respected more than those of almost any other nation, but added: ‘Lawyers and other professionals still have something of a bad reputation at home, which I believe can be quite damaging.’

He said the ‘antipathy to lawyers shown by the popular press, many politicians and by the public is logically unjustifiable’ and called for a ‘cultural change’. Government ministers, he said, could have an impact by what they say about lawyers in speeches and to the media.

‘We need to appreciate the value of the UK’s legal and professional services, to understand their importance to the UK economy, and to promote them in a variety of ways,’ said Vos.

Elsewhere in the speech, Vos said the UK needed to ensure its interests are properly protected in dealing with European Union institutions.

He warned: ‘I am as pro-European as one can be, but there is no doubt that some elements of the European agenda will, whether or not this is intended, have the effect of reducing the influence and reach of English commercial and corporate law and the UK judicial system.’