Why does the court process seem slow and expensive?
For justice to be seen to be done, the judge must hear all views before determining the facts proven by the evidence.
The parties, not the court, have the evidentiary burden of presenting the evidence required to prove the facts they want the judge to believe.
The applicable law to be applied is determined by the facts eg contract law does not apply if no contract is proven, etc.
The judge applies the applicable law to the proven facts to make the decision.
The court forms and rules are designed to give all parties an equal opportunity to present the required evidence to prove the facts.
The court process is slowed by the parties not admitting facts causing more time and effort to obtain proper disclosure thus more expense.
Even if you have all the evidence required to prove your required facts, the court might not have a judge available for many months, to hear the evidence from all parties at a trial, because of the lack of judges and related staff. To avoid increasing taxes, governments have limited budgets for all services including building courthouses and hiring judges and all the required support staff.
Consequently, mediation and private arbitration services have increased to resolve disputes without courts. Thus an experienced lawyer will encourage a client to consider "alternative dispute resolution" ("ADR") options in addition to a court claim.
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