It is notoriously hard to access documents from courts in England and Wales. It can even be hard to find out when a trial is taking place. This makes monitoring how justice is done in the UK very difficult. Economic crime cases can take many months to come to trial, wasting precious public resources and undermining confidence in the enforcement bodies.
Our unique court monitoring programme works to ensure that economic crime cases are subject to proper public scrutiny. And we advocate for a comprehensive public database of court documents, that captures all judgements and sentencing remarks and key documents relating to a trial, and a more effective court listing system.
As regular observers of court proceedings, our experience is that the public access rights which flow from the principle of open justice are not always a practical reality. The most frequent and frustrating challenge we encounter in this regard relates to our requests for non-party access to court documents.
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill has responded to the recent letter sent by Spotlight on Corruption and the other members of the Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network pointing...
Despite its much-touted commitment to open justice, the English court system can be difficult to navigate, even for experienced lawyers and seasoned reporters. For ordinary members of the public, trying...
On 29 December 2023, HM Courts and Tribunal Service published a guidance document entitled “How you can attend or access courts or tribunals”. This guide falls far short of delivering...
Spotlight on Corruption and partners have obtained a copy of the Mozambique “Tuna Bond” settlement agreement with Credit Suisse and 11 other financial institutions, exposing for the first time the...
While the Law Commission ultimately decided that the balance between confidentiality and transparency is best left to the courts to address, we believe the Arbitration Bill should introduce statutory safeguards to protect arbitration from being abused to conceal corruption or fraud.
Today Nigeria prevailed in its monumental challenge to arbitral awards worth more than $11 billion that were obtained by a small offshore company following a failed gas project in Nigeria....
Transparency in court proceedings is essential for us to do our work. We have therefore consistently championed the principle of open justice and advocated for greater transparency in how the courts operate. We therefore welcome this call for evidence on the way forward for open justice, and urge the government to raise the level of its ambition to tackle the current barriers of access to court hearings and information.
