New courts investment met with City approval

New courts investment met with City approval

January 1, 0001, Commercial Dispute Resolution

Ian Hargreaves is quoted in a Commercial Dispute Resolution article regarding plans to build a new 18-courtroom complex to handle significant criminal and civil cases in London. According to Hargreaves, the proposed new complex demonstrates the importance of legal services to the UK economy, which, he says, provides “a not insignificant sum to the country's coffers and representing a fair slice of GDP." He adds, "In a post-Brexit world the City of London will need whatever it can to differentiate itself from other leading and growing financial and legal centres.” Hargreaves acknowledges that the new centre would provide a cutting-edge modernity to an already widely respected common law justice system, “world-renowned for a thorough, fair and highly intelligent judiciary – which cannot be bought."

"The proposal to combine both criminal and civil courts under one roof also makes sense as the lines between the two codes begin to blur with ever-expanding criminalisation of corporate and financial behaviour,” Hargreaves says. “Financial crime lends itself to both criminal penalties and civil damages and legal practitioners can no longer be ‘one-trick ponies’ adopting strategies which exclude the consideration of criminal, civil or regulatory consequences. Accordingly, better to bring all the skill sets under one roof and create a truly modern, effective, and efficient approach to obtaining justice."