§ 38. Mr. FlightTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what arrangements he is making to publicise the transitional arrangements regarding the new procedures for small claims courts; and if he will make a statement. [87554]
§ Mr. VazTransitional arrangements were covered in Part 51 of the Civil Procedure Rules, published on 29 January. The Civil Justice Reforms introduced on 26 April changed the way in which small claims are now handled. Defended claims are now allocated to one of three tracks; the small claims, the fast or the multi-track. All tracks were treated in the same way in terms of publicity, as they are the foundation of the new, unified civil justice system.
The Court Service took steps to inform its customers of these changes. Posters were placed in court buildings in March; information slips were sent out with every piece of outgoing mail; and people attending the court personally to issue summonses were informed of the changes. Copies of "A Court User's Guide to the Civil Justice Reforms" were available in all courts and information was also available on the Lord Chancellor's Department's website. Some local papers published an article about the reforms by the Lord Chancellor.