Clients depending upon results obtained in court (often referred to as a ‘no win, no fee’ system.). There is a strong feeling that the costs of running the courts system could be cut by reducing many bureaucratic and restrictive practices within the legal profession.
Despite move to make legal remedies more widely available, access to the law remains unequal. Among commercial organizations, a small under-resourced firm may be unable to put the money upfront to pursue a case against a larger company that could defend itself with an army of retained lawyers. Similarly, private consumers are unequal in their access to the law. It has often been suggested that easy access to the law is afforded to the very rich (who can afford it) and the very poor (who may be eligible to receive legal aid). An apparent paradox of attempts to make the law more accessible is that these attempts may themselves overwhelm courts with cases with which they are unable to cope. As an example, the Small Claims Court is reported to have been overwhelmed in 2007 by thousands of bank customers suing their banks for a refund of ‘unreasonable’ charges levied by the banks. The flood of litigants was assisted by the avail-ability online of template letters promoted by consumer group sites and the ability of aggrieved customers to submit small claims online