One senior source described this as a strategy to secure a "budget-type" form of justice.In the new year, Lord Woolf will look at setting up a special working group to examine ways of dealing more swiftly and fairly with lower-value claims of medical negligence. One Cabinet source admitted last week that the people of Middle England "go nowhere near the courts" if they can avoid them.Lord Woolf has already issued a preliminary report which envisaged judges becoming trial managers who would dictate the pace of cases, and a fast- track system for disputes involving less than pounds 10,000, with lawyers' fees fixed in advance. As a result, many cases which now go to expensive county court hearings should be dealt with more cheaply.Lord Woolf, who is conducting a wide-ranging review of the legal system, will then begin an inquiry into new areas, including judicial review, medical negligence and patent cases, reporting next summer.Ministers, who were shaken by the six-figure costs incurred in David Ashby's unsuccessful libel case last week, believe the spiralling rise in legal bills has deterred the middle classes from litigation. The range of cases handled in small claims courts is to be widened. Cabinet ministers want to see the changes because they believe the justice system has become the preserve of the very wealthy, those payrolled by companies, and people on legal aid.The first part of this package will emerge on 8 January, when the Lord Chancellor will raise from pounds 1,000 to pounds 3,000 the ceiling on settlements in the small claims court.
THE GOVERNMENT is backing plans to make the legal system more accessible to people who cannot afford lawyers' fees and do not qualify for legal aid. The process of judicial review, which enables people to challenge decisions taken by the authorities, and the handling of medical negligence cases are targeted to be simplified as part of a new "justice-on-a-budget" package. Overall, 34 per cent expect to play board games and 11 per cent charades, on Christmas Day.And who are the people who say they intend to ignore the whole thing? One person in 50, who is more likely to be a man than a woman, older rather than younger (none under 20), more urban than rural, more Labour than Tory or Liberal Democrat, more Midlands than South or North.The typical Christmas curmudgeon, then, might be a male Labour supporter of 40, living in Birmingham.The Mori survey was carried out among a representativesample of 1,003 adults aged 16-54 in 72 constituency sampling points throughout Great Britain on 19 and 20 December.Professor Robert M Worcester is chairman of Mori.. Whereas about one in twenty, 6 per cent, said that they played computer games four years ago, one person in six, or 18 per cent, now expects to.Among the younger group, 16-34, the figure has jumped from 6 per cent to 20 per cent, mainly at the expense of board games (from 40 per cent down to 33 per cent), but not charades, whose popularity has doubled from 6 to 12 percent among this age group. Sixteen per cent said they would be going to a pantomime or Christmas show at a theatre.In percentage terms, the biggest change in what people will be doing is, perhaps predictably, in the numbers playing computer games. Among the 16-34 group this was the plan for 36 per cent, while among the 35- 54s 44 per cent said they would.Overall, more than one-third of men (35 per cent) and nearly half of the women (47 per cent) said they would be filling some child's stocking this Christmas.Twenty-three per cent of those asked said they intended to go to church during the holiday, and these were more likely to be women, older people, Tories and Southerners.Carol services are nearly as popular, with 19 per cent expecting to go to a carol concert or service, while 6 per cent said they planned to go carol-singing in the street. In 1991,a third of those questioned said they spent less on presents than in the previous year.
This year that figure was halved to just 16 per cent, a sign which the Government might interpret as the first glimmer of a return of the so-called feel-good factor.But whatever good feeling there is tends to come under strain during the festivities. In 1991, 11 per cent of those questioned said they expected a family row, but that has now risen to 18 per cent.What do we do at Christmas? Well more than seven out of ten of us spend it watching television, and nearly an equal proportion drink alcohol - both figures largely unchanged from 1991.Strikingly fewer people, however, expect to do this at home this year. Only 48 per cent expect to stay at home for Christmas, compared with 74 per cent who said in 1991 they would spend the holiday at home.Christmas is a time for children, and 39 per cent, the same as in 1991, said they expected to fill a child's Christmas stocking this year. Among the 35-54 group, those expecting to give to to charities was down from 43 per cent to 27, while among the younger age group, the 16-34s, the fall was from 32 per cent to 21.Generosity towards friends and relatives, however, appears to be on the increase. This compared with 37 per cent in a similar Mori study four years ago. Last week's survey covered the 16-54 age group, and it seems that young people are meaner than their elders. Mori questioned more than 1,000 people across the country last week about their expectations for Christmas.