ABSTRACT
The new regional courts would be large enough, Richard Bingham conjectured, contra Peter Robinson, to handle enough civil cases to justify a fixed list and enough upper-tier criminal work to occupy a High Court judge. The ensuing general scheme with its presiding High Court judges, ‘father-figures’of ‘standing and personality’, supported by competent administrators, could, it was hoped, build strong legal centres in the provinces with a concomitant growth of local Bars and concentrations of solicitors. Courts in lesser, satellite courts in towns adjoining the major conurbations could be assigned overspill cases by the central regional office when the central courts were overburdened. Central government would be vested with the responsibility to fund and build new courts where they were needed, ensure that all courts were properly maintained, appoint and pay court staff and, presciently, meet the cost of all prosecutions. Local authorities, officials and practitioners in a number of the threatened Assize towns mourned the impending fate of their courts.
