The test run for the new financial remedies courts announced last year will begin in the West Midlands, the HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has announced.
Additional pilots will follow in London and South-East Wales following a review of progress at the the Birmingham Civil and Family Justice Centre, which covers the West Midlands.
The trial financial remedy courts will focus on financial settlements within divorce but the new system will eventually be expanded to all financial matters dealt with in the family courts.
In newly issued guidance, HMCTS states that the Birmingham pilot will provide its first opportunity to test some of the new courts’ central components, including the use of specialist judges, the assemblage of specialist staff, and a focus on the use of computer systems in preference to paper, with court papers and contested applications to be submitted via email in most cases.
Interesting. At the Rolls Building all filings must be electronic – but computers and scanners are provided in the vast cavern on the ground floor for litigants in person. I don’t see HMCTS doing that at every court and where they do they won’t be properly maintained!