All Future Court Documents Public

As a result of lobbying by journalists in the last six months, anyone can now obtain copies of court documents unless one of the parties has successfully applied for them to be kept confidential.

Previously, one could only obtain the initial claim form, some orders and any judgments. Otherwise, an application had to be made to the court for access to other documents, and in practice this was rarely granted.

The new rule means that since 2 October 2006, pleadings have been available to anyone paying the copying charges. Access to witness statements, expert reports, documents attached to statements of case, and documents in divorce/family cases will still be limited.

The new rule was to be retrospective but the Law Society challenged this. Interested parties have now agreed a compromise that the rule will only apply to documents filed after 2 October 2006.