Litigation Trends - July 2011

Statistics for judicial and court activity in England and Wales have been published by the Ministry of Justice for the year 2010. The report, which was published on 8 July 2011, nearly three months earlier than previous years' reports, indicates a fall in the number of claims being brought across the board.

This year's statistics show that the upward trend in the volume of litigation dealt with by the High Court in London in previous years reversed in 2010, with proceedings originating in the Royal Courts of Justice (excluding the family division) falling by a quarter (see Fig. 1). Again, the biggest impact on this figure was the number of originating proceedings in the Bankruptcy and Companies Courts, which accounted for 58 per cent of the decrease, although the trend was followed across all the courts of both the Queen's Bench and Chancery Divisions. However, the report indicates that the figures for the number of Bankruptcy Court proceedings in 2008 and 2009 and