| A small group of practitioners in Leeds first met 3.5 years ago to discuss whether we could secure new facilities in Leeds for the Business and Property Courts. We are delighted to announce that the new Court facilities will be operational from early next year. A letter is attached with more information. We had enthusiastic support from Lord Justice Snowden, Sir Julian Flaux (the Chancellor of the High Court), Mr Justice Fancourt (the current VC), local judges, particularly HHJ Jonathan Klein plus Richard Wright KC (then leader of the circuit). Leeds City Council attended numerous meetings with us and HMCTS and provided resources so that we could produce a “glossy brochure” to help us get the support of the business community for the initiative. This is fantastic news for Leeds and we hope you will all use the new facilities when you can. When we have more information about the opening date we will let you know. If you have any questions or comments please contact us via sue.harris@walkermorris.co.uk and catherine.woodward@gordonsllp.com Kind regards Sue and Catie |
The Business & Property Courts deal with the most complex and high value business, property and private client disputes. The Business & Property Courts in Leeds play a key role in delivering justice, ensuring that those disputes can be resolved locally by specialist judges. For some time, both court users and we have recognised that the facilities available at Leeds Combined Court Centre to the Business & Property Courts do not fully meet the needs of court users. We have prioritised finding a solution to this. We are now pleased to inform you that a new Business & Property Courts hearing centre will be opening in Leeds in early 2024 at West Gate, which is at 6 Grace Street, directly opposite the Combined Court Centre.
The new facility, which will comprise 4 court rooms and 8 IT-enabled consultation rooms, will ensure that the most complex and high value Business & Property Courts cases can be tried in Leeds in court rooms which are fit for 21st century litigation and which accommodate new ways of working. The new facility will support the hard work already carried out by judges, us and court users to develop the Business & Property Courts in Leeds.
The courtrooms and consultation rooms, which have been, and will continue to be, designed in consultation with the judiciary and court users, will allow trials to be conducted without any paper documents, and, where appropriate, by hybrid and remote working. The courtrooms will offer a flexible space, comfortably accommodating trials with multiple parties.
We hope to provide further news about the new facility as the project develops. In the meantime, if you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Deborah Smith deborahlouise.smith@Justice.gov.uk or Joanne Town joanne.town@Justice.gov.uk.
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