Planning lawyers announce the launch of Case Explorer

Specialist planning law firm Town Legal LLP has teamed up with leading planning and environmental barristers’ chambers Landmark to launch the Planning Court Case Explorer – a business intelligence tool designed to provide clients, and anyone interested in the planning process, with free to access data on cases which have been heard in the Planning Court since its inception in 2014.  Case Explorer also includes data on cases subsequently heard in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.   The creation of the Planning Court in 2014 represented a huge step forward in improving the effective operation of the planning system.  Regardless of the specific context, when it comes to planning litigation there are two elements which are absolutely critical to our clients: the predictability of decision making and the timeliness of reaching those decisions – we believe Case Explorer provides valuable insight on both aspects.   Commenting on today’s launch, Town Legal partner, Simon Ricketts said, “As part of our ongoing commitment to innovation, we at Town wanted to put together the combined strengths of the Town Library technology (created by legal tech specialists Simmons Wavelength) and Landmark Chambers in order to create an easy to use platform that will allow users to drill down in to data in a way that has not previously been possible.  It’s been a fascinating process which has unlocked some powerful statistics which we shall be using to the benefit of our clients”. Case Explorer provides a wealth of data from case categories and decisions through to details on timings and the parties involved.  Users of the platform can also interrogate data relating to particular Judges or Counsel.  At launch, Case Explorer has comprehensive data pertaining to 493 cases and involving 243 separate local authorities. John Litton QC a barrister practising at Landmark Chambers said, “We’re delighted to have had the opportunity to work closely with the team at Town and Simmons Wavelength on this exciting project.  We believe Case Explorer will provide investors, developers, local authorities, community groups and other stakeholders with valuable data on cases at both first instance and appellate stages”.