[JURIST Europe] Retired chief justice for England and Wales Lord Woolf [BBC profile] has criticized large-scale litigation by companies that often spend in excess of 100 million pounds on lawyers' fees. Woolf, a longtime proponent of mediation and alternative dispute resolution while on the bench, told the Financial Times that he viewed cases that cost millions of pounds and requried thousands of documents with "sadness" and encouraged companies to look into other options before choosing litigation. Woolf went on to say that the tactic of lawyers running up huge fees to their clients and then recommending abandoning litigation was a discredit to the UK legal profession. Woolf is currently studying to become an official mediator [Legal Week report] and said he looks forward to practicing what he recommended from the bench [CEDR report]. The Financial Times has more.

D. Wes Rist is Bureau Chief for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. He is based in the UK.