Falling at the First Hurdle? A Critical Analysis of HMCTS’s Implementation of Stage 1 of the Online Court

2021-07-09T15:19:04+00:00

This article critically examines the progress which has been made to date by HMCTS in implementing Stage 1 of the Online Court. Initially proposed by Lord Briggs as part of the Civil Court Structure Review, Stage 1 was intended to act as a virtual triage system for low value and non-complex civil claims. Its premise was based around a court user completing a series of ‘decision tree’ questions, which would in turn allow the system to provide them with information about the relevant legal framework relating to their dispute and allow them to create a properly pleaded claim or defence for submission to court. This would all be done without the need for legal representation. This article discusses the role Stage 1 is designed to play within the Online Court and the historical policy factors which have combined to render the successful implementation of Stage 1 so critical to the future of access to civil justice and the public trust in accessibility of civil justice. It questions the progress HMCTS have made to date on its design and for comparative purposes discusses the stages involved in the development of the Solutions Explorer within the Civil Resolution Tribunal in British Columbia on which Stage 1 of the Online Court is heavily based. The article concludes by offering recommendations to HMCTS on how the design, development and implementation of Stage 1 can still be achieved successfully.

Customer value theory and cryptocurrency regulation

2022-04-13T14:10:07+00:00

Cryptocurrencies are the product of disruptive technologies which have the potential to unsettle the global banking sector and, as a result, state-controlled economies across the world. Similarly, their inherent volatility and the relatively unregulated markets within which they are currently traded present a multiplicity of risks from which consumers will increasingly require protection as their popularity continues to rise. In seeking to inform any regulatory intervention, lawmakers are likely to refer to – amongst others – a range of economic, legal, political, sociological, and technological theories to understand the nature and extent of the relevant risks. Customer value theory from the marketing discipline offers an important perspective, which to the authors’ knowledge has not yet been considered. This paper presents the findings of an interdisciplinary, theoretical study, which explored the application of customer value theory to cryptocurrency and its regulation. It is argued that customer value theory offers explanatory insight into the nature of cryptocurrency itself as well as the risks that it poses to consumer traders, and that it thereby constitutes a useful lens for lawmakers as they seek to regulate in this emergent area.

Journal of Law, Technology and Trust

Falling at the First Hurdle? A Critical Analysis of HMCTS’s Implementation of Stage 1 of the Online Court

Customer value theory and cryptocurrency regulation