Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Accepted
Paragraph: 93
Reform judgment collection, storage, and publication to reduce reliance on commercial publishers
Conclusion
HMCTS should reform the way that judgments are collected, stored and published so that there is less reliance on commercial legal publishers. The judgments of courts are the product of a publicly funded justice system and the public, the media and the legal sector should not have to pay significant sums for access.
Government Response Summary
The government highlighted the recently launched free-to-access FCL (Find Case Law) service, which provides public access to over 2,700 judgments since April 2022, and stated it will use a 2023 call for evidence to gauge views on further expansion.
Paragraph Reference:
93
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
84. The recently launched FCL service74 provides free public access to court judgments and tribunal decisions once they have been handed down and released for publication by the court/tribunal. 85. The service is operated, funded, and being developed by TNA, working with the MoJ, HMCTS, and Judicial Office.75 86. As of December 2022, over 2,700 judgments have been published since launch in April 2022. The service is currently in the early stages of development and incremental improvements are being made in response to user testing and feedback. We share the ambition to ensure greater equality in access to judgments and decisions, which are a product of the publicly funded justice system. We will use the call for evidence in 2023 to gauge public views on expanding the service further. 87. FCL currently prioritises judgments and decisions from a limited number of courts and tribunals, but our longer-term ambition is to provide a complete record of judgments and decisions.