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A cost-effective way of approaching these questions may be to analyse a sample of
files where an application for leave to appeal was made. But to identify those files
efficiently would require a marker to be input into the court's computer records
whenever an application for leave to appeal is made. This would require an entry to
be made by the judicial clerk as the application is made, usually orally, at the
conclusion of a hearing.
It would of course be highly convenient if data items were entered tracking every
occurrence in a case, so that the database would show not merely whether the
application for leave was made, but whether it was granted and, if not, whether an
application was made to the Court of Appeal and what the result was, with what order
as to costs, etc. However, this kind of record keeping is not feasible given the
available resources. The questions that may be asked in relation to each aspect of each
proposed reform are simply too numerous to be anticipated and covered by routine
statistics.
Other monitoring approaches ought to complement routine data collection by the
Judiciary. Where difficulties are found to arise in relation to particular reforms,
specific data collection and analysis focussing on the problem may have to be
undertaken. One initiative adopted in England and Wales was to set up what is known
as the Law Society Woolf Network, consisting of a group of about 130 solicitors who
have agreed to answer a questionnaire (initially twice yearly, later, yearly) on how the
reforms are operating in practice.
This may be well worth imitating in Hong Kong.
The law schools should also be encouraged to become more involved in socio-legal
studies bearing on the civil justice system. They could, for example, be encouraged to
conduct surveys on the interaction of unrepresented litigants with the system, designed
to identify particular points of difficulty and measures which such litigants may find
helpful. The impact of court-annexed mediation might also merit study, to assess, for
instance, mediation success rates and to describe the courts' responses in terms of
costs orders, to rejection of requested or recommended mediation.
Notes
See LCD-FF §2.3.
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