Chris Lethem is a solicitor and former Circuit Judge who sat for over twenty five years, initially in family and civil law and latterly focussing on civil dispute resolution. He has an expertise in costs law and is Hon Vice President of the Association of Costs Lawyers. He was a member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee for ten years and is co-opted to the CPRC digitisation sub-committee.
Chris is an editor of Blackstone’s Civil Practice and a contributor to the Civil Court Practice and Butterworths Costs Service. He has also written for Mithani: Directors Qualification and in numerous periodicals including the Journal of Person Injury Law. He recently contributed to ‘Making Decisions Judicially’ (Hart Publications).
Chris is a former college lecturer and examiner. He lectured at the Judicial College for over twenty years. For ten years he was the Course Director for the Civil Law Continuation Course delivered to civil judges. He continues to lecture at the Judicial College and recently addressed judges in the Netherlands. Since retirement Chris has worked in academia as a Visting Lecturer at University College London and as a Lecturer in Law at The University of Law. He devised and presented the fixed costs training to the Judiciary in 2023 and 2024.
Chris was a member of the working group which produced ‘Civil Courts a Structural Review’(2016). From 2016, he was adviser to the MoJ and HMCTS on the reform programme until 2019 when he became Lead Circuit Judge for Online Courts. He continues to act as an adviser to the MoJ and HMCTS on the development of Online Courts and the HM Government’s reform programme.
Chris has experience in access to justice issues initially through the judicial working group on Litigants in Person (The Hickenbottom report) (2013). Thereafter on Lady Justice Asplin’s working group on McKenzie Friends and Litigants in Person. He was a LIP Liaison Judge and piloted CPR 3.1A through the rule committee. He continues to be involved in access to justice issues, in particular exploring the opportunities digitisation offers to Litigants in Person.