Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd , the Lord Chief Justice, gave a speech this week to the Justice Committee at the House of Commons in which he argued for primary legislation to enable the creation of an Online Court in which settlement assistance would be readily available as part of the process and litigants would not be at any disadvantage by not being represented by lawyers. His speech echoes the proposals made last year by myself and my colleagues in the ODR Advisory Group to the

Michael Gove, who in May 2015 was given the duel role within the UK justice system and government of Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, used his first formal speech, at the Legatum Institute in London, to criticise our "creaking and outdated" justice system which has, through the barriers of cost and excessive formality, become inaccessible to a large section of society and set out his proposals for the future. He noted that :- " it astonishes businesses an