A recent survey of QCs in the magazine Legal Business, based on estimates from within the legal profession, found several earning more than pounds 1m a year, including the libel expert George Carmen. “I know of young men of a few years’ experience who are earning more than a Law Lord,” he said Lord Woolf’s salary is pounds 109,435. He added: “We must manage the 98 per cent of cases which never come to trial.” A case can take years to get to court. Most never make it, and are settled out of court after accruing massive legal bills.
Lord Woolf has also proposed fast-track courts for cases where damages claimed are less than pounds 10,000 In all cases judges, not lawyers, would control progress.

Speaking to the audience of barristers, he said the greater control of case-length by judges should mean barristers quoting fixed fees, rather than charging by time He also accused barristers of being over-paid. Speaking at the Bar Council’s annual conference in London, Lord Woolf suggested technology would make meetings possible through video conferences, even if the judge was in Newcastle and the parties in London. His Access to Justice proposals to the Government, after a year’s consultation, include early meetings between judge, prosecution and defence to determine where a case is going. Lord Woolf, the Law Lord behind plans for the biggest reform of civil justice this century, said judges and lawyers could save large amounts of time and money if they started to use telephones. However, a question mark hangs over the legal status of the service, as well as the amenability of companies which provide access to the Internet.

Internet-provider companies are ambivalent about voice communications over the Internet as they take up large amounts of bandwidth, slowing down connections for other users. A major Internet provider, Unipalm Pipex, has already banned end-user companies from carrying real-time voice data.Traditionally the Internet has grown to accommodate its users’ needs and many believe that new technology will keep up with demands made on it.. BT have had it too good for too long.” But BT said they had no objections to the IDT system, “as long as they abide by the same regulations as us”.The Telecommunications watchdog OFTEL confirmed that the service “seemed legal”, but added: “We are watching it closely.” Any restrictive legislation would take at least six months.IDT, whose undercutting “callback” phone services have irritated telephone companies and governments worldwide, claims its new service will revolutionise long-distance calls. Neil Ellul, editor of Internet magazine, said: “The whole basis of the Internet is cheap and reliable communication. British Telecom, which makes pounds 2bn a year from international calls, stands to lose custom from the one million British people with Internet access, a significant number of whom are business users.