Preface
This book grew out of research in which the author is engaged in the area of
legal method or technique. It builds on analysis of litigation devised in Legal
Technique.¹ It seeks to address the twin problems of cost and delay which beset
litigation in most first world countries. This book explores a largely neglected
analysis – that cost and delay are substantially caused by failure of court systems
to organise the substantial amount of documented information that even a
moderately sized case will generate. If this is a substantial cause of the problem,
the solution lies in organising the information. Consequently, the book proposes
a renovated system of pleading that ensures two things – that a case is fully and
clearly presented and that information is organised. This system of pleading is
squarely based on a model for litigation developed in Legal Technique.
This renovated system of pleading also makes it possible to provide a system of
legal aid for unrepresented litigants, which is addressed in Appendix 2. This
appendix outlines how legal assistance could be provided in the form of
supervised assistance for unrepresented parties from students undergoing
practical legal training as part of their qualifications to become solicitors or
barristers. This assistance involves preparing documents to be filed by a party
which set out the entirety of the party’s case, organised according to the
structure provided by the proposed system of pleading.
In writing this book I am specially indebted to Professor William R Long of
Willamette University College of Law, Salem, for his kind, thoughtful, helpful
and encouraging comments on this proposal. He was a friend indeed, an amicus
curiae both literally and metaphorically.
Christopher Enright
North Sydney
6 June 2007
1
Christopher Enright (2002) Legal Technique Federation Press: Sydney. A second
edition is currently in preparation.
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