Mr. Edmund Honohan:

All courts would operate much more smoothly if there were no litigants. That is the way courts are proceeding to develop now. They are going online with submissions and all sorts of written materials. Judges hearing lay litigants are sometimes dismayed at finding that they have to actually pick apart a case being made. They sometimes have to offer advice, as I used to do as Master of the High Court. I used to suggest what the litigants should be saying to me in some instances. They would go away and put it in an affidavit. That was the only way to enable the parties to actually formulate a coherent defence. If they have time, some judges will spot the potential of a particular defence and will encourage the defendant to explore it. Other judges will not do so because they will say the person got the money so where is the injustice? There are several hundred years of moral force behind that idea. If somebody got money, they have to pay it back, but question is, to whom should they pay it back? Is it now statute barred, for example?