G4. Judiciary's survey of representation at certain hearings

148.	With a view to gaining a picture of the extent of legal representation at High Court hearings and the nature of such representation (where it existed), the Judiciary conducted a survey of three kinds of hearing held during the year 2000. These were :-

	*	cases before the master in chambers where applications were made for orders relating to pleadings, discovery, summary judgment and striking out proceedings, security for costs, setting aside judgments, consolidation, stays and so on.
	*	assessments of damages and examinations of judgment debtors before the master sitting in court; and
	*	appeals to the judge in chambers from masters' decisions (including two heard in open court).

	Excluded from the survey were hearings lasting for less than one hour (including many "3 minute summonses"), and for the taxation of costs.
149.	The relevant findings are set out in :-
149.1	Appendix C, Table 22, as to interlocutory hearings before the master in chambers);
149.2	Appendix C, Table 23 involving the master sitting in court on assessments of damages and examinations of judgment debtors;
149.3	Appendix C, Table 24 as to hearings before the judge on masters' appeals; and
149.4	Appendix C, Table 25 which sets out the totals.
150.	These figures, relating to cases in progress in 2000 where interlocutory hearings were held, tend to confirm a significant involvement of unrepresented litigants. They also indicate that parties may be more or less likely to be represented depending on the nature of the hearing.
150.1	Chambers applications before the master in an on-going dispute were most likely (in 73% of the cases) to involve representation on both sides.
150.2	Assessments of damages were likely to involve a lower degree of representation on both sides (58%). However, perhaps because an insurer is often involved, there were no cases where all parties were in person.
150.3	In examinations of judgment debtors, representation was at its lowest with 80% of the cases having at least one party (probably the debtor) unrepresented and only 20% of the cases with all parties represented. The inference may be that the case having been lost, legal representation was dispensed with.
150.4	Before the judge in chambers, on appeal from a master's decision, just under half of the cases (44%) involved at least one party who was unrepresented.
150.5	A very small fraction of the cases involved the absence of representation on both or all sides.
151.	The same cases were also analysed for existence and nature of representation counting on a "per party per hearing" basis (Appendix C, Table 26). Thus, a single case involving several parties produced multiple figures, possibly with different categories of representation, for each hearing held. This takes into account the fact that parties may be added or drop out and that the nature of representation may change. The litigants in person rate stood at 19% before the master and 23% before the judge.