Media Report - Lawyers may pay for court delays

Media Report from The Australian:

LAWYERS could be personally liable for costs under new laws aimed at delivering quicker, cheaper and less complex justice in the Federal Court.

The new laws, unveiled last night by Attorney-General Robert McClelland, will allow judges to better manage large cases and streamline litigation.

Parties and their lawyers will be obliged to resolve disputes as quickly, cheaply and efficiently as possible.

If lawyers breach these obligations, a judge will be able to make personal costs orders against them, including that they have no right of reimbursement from their clients.

Courts will also be given clearer powers to force parties to narrow the issues in dispute, limit the number of expert witness and refer matters to alternative dispute resolution.

Mr McClelland said the reforms, which had been developed in close consultation with the Federal Court, would encourage a cultural shift in the approach taken to resolving disputes.

A person or a commercial entity that has information and resources should not be able to use the justice system in ways that exploit the significant public cost of the justice system, Mr McClelland told the Commercial Bar Association of Victoria.

After all, the cost is ultimately worn by the taxpayer.

Mr McClelland said the 13-year legal battle over Alan Bond's failed Bell Group, which ended recently after 400 days in court, cost taxpayers about $6.19 million, but the parties contributed only about $900,000 of that.

Overall, parties to the case paid less than 15 per cent of the actual cost of running the case.

This was money that could have been better used in many other areas of the justice system, not least legal aid.

He said the new laws, which would be introduced soon into parliament, would help to avoid such long and costly proceedings.

"Our aim with these changes is to ensure that problems such as protracted commercial actions, unreasonably high costs to litigants and competing demands on the resources of the Federal Court are appropriately addressed," Mr McClelland said.

He said the Government would push ahead also with its restructure of the Federal, Family and Federal Magistrates Courts.

In a subtle rebuke to federal magistrates -- who have resisted the government's move to dismantle their court because of concerns that include pay and the fact that not all will be known as judges -- he said: "The interests of litigants should be front and centre in any reform of courts."