A High Court judge said yesterday he would think twice about taking a case to court because of the high costs involved.
Mr Justice Gerald Nazareth, 68, who begins pre-retirement leave today, warned that the public was being 'shut out' of court because the expense could leave them financially ruined.
'We have an excellent system for getting to the root of cases. We look at them very carefully. We have a very sophisticated body of laws,' he said.
'But at the end of the day it is so expensive that average people are shut out from going to the courts. I myself would be chary of going into court because if you got costs awarded against you it would break you.' The problem had caused 'great concern' to judges in common law countries all over the world.
'Judges are people like any others. They get concerned about this,' Mr Justice Nazareth said. 'But there is not all that much the judges themselves have been able to do so far.' He said that was about to change, thanks to breakthroughs such as the far-reaching reforms introduced in Britain to tackle the issue.
These developments have been carefully monitored by Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang, who earlier this month announced the setting up of a working party to consider similar changes.
