A civil justice review in Ontario once said:
Unreasonable delay in the disposition of disputes is, indeed, ‘the enemy of justice and peace in the community’. It leads inevitably to unreasonable costs. It breeds inaccessibility. It fosters frustration, and frustrates fairness. The administration of justice falls into disrepute. People become alienated.
Sexual behaviour and drug taking may well be the staple of many a school trip, but when teachers became involved it resulted in this recent messy discrimination claim: Aylesford School v Grosvenor [2008] UKEAT. The judgment is actually fairly dry, and the interesting legal point comes from the delay in giving judgment following the tribunal hearing. Discrimination claims must inevitably look at every allegation, so hearings are long, and this particular one took 40 days of the tribunal’s time. To add insult to injury, the tribunal then took 11 months to produce its judgment, including 26 further days of deliberation. A point is taken on the appeal on whether delay is actionable, but it is held not to be in this case, as the decision making process was continuous throughout the eleven months the parties had to wait.
They still did better than Harman J, who in 1998 had to resign after being criticised for delaying his judgment for an amazing 20 months following trial.
