Bye-bye London?

Jane Lambert has been celebrating, via the LinkedIn Ipso Jure group, a recent decision of the Intellectual Property Office hearing officer in Manchester, Richard Wragg v Mike Donnelly (here). Her satisfaction was not just because she triumphed on behalf of her client but for the reason that this was the first such hearing to take place outside London.

Right: the Old Corporation Court Room, Malmesbury -- a worthy venue for proceedings before the hearing officer?

On this issue she explains how easy it is:

"The issue is canvassed first with the other side in correspondence and then put to the court at the case management conference.

In my experience the difficulty lies not so much in persuading a judge or hearing officer to sit outside London as in persuading local administrators to free up one of their courts.

Donnelly was heard in the immigration tribunal. As we now have new civil court centres in Manchester and Liverpool it should be easier to get a trial on the Northern Circuit. Space in Leeds and Newcastle is still tight".

Thanks, Jane. If the cost and inefficient use of time caused by litigation in distant venues can be trimmed down or avoided altogether, so much the better.