Justice For All - The Civil Reforms

The biggest change in civil justice in the last 100 years took place on April 26th 1999 when the Civil Procedure Rules produced by Lord Woolf came into operation. The aim of the new Rules is to provide justice that is both quicker and cheaper. The question is, are these Rules likely to succeed and how will they effect members of the public?

The biggest change in civil justice in the last 100 years took place on April 26th 1999 when the Civil Procedure Rules produced by Lord Woolf came into operation. The aim of the new Rules is to provide justice that is both quicker and cheaper. The question is, are these Rules likely to succeed and how will they effect members of the public?

The new Rules provide for a system which encourages the settlement of disputes with the aim of providing faster compensation for a Claimant and lower legal costs.

One of Lord Woolf’s major concerns was that under the old system legal costs were often greater than the compensation awarded to the injured party. The over-riding objective of his reforms therefore is to ensure that cases are dealt with fairly and expeditiously and, most importantly, in a way which is proportionate to the amount of money claimed.

Courts will have greater control of the litigation process. They will be dictating a timetable for a case, determining the requisite level of investigation and monitoring expenditure.

Dealing with claims

When an action is commenced, a very detailed letter of claim is sent to the other party setting out the exact nature and circumstances of a claim and why we believe the other party is at fault, together with the full extent of the injury and losses incurred. Defendants will have 3 months to investigate the claim and to indicate whether they admit or deny fault. If an admission is obtained from a Defendant then they are bound by that admission for any claim up to a value of £15,000. If the Defendant denies liability, he must now give full reasons for his denial. This will greatly assist member’s claims as we will now be provided with substantial information about the Defendant’s case at a very early stage. This will enable us to assess the merits of a claim much earlier on, particularly as Defendants will now be obliged to disclose their relevant documentation prior to Court proceedings being commenced.

In a personal injury claim, the Claimant will at the same time nominate a medical expert who we will instruct to prepare a medical report on the injuries sustained. The other party may agree or object to our choice, but if they object they must give valid reasons. If no objection is received, the Defendant will normally not be permitted to obtain their own expert report.

Issuing Court proceedings

If the case cannot be settled at the above stage, Court proceedings will still have to be issued. However, this is now seen as a weapon of last resort. When cases have been issued each case will be allocated to a particular "track" by the Court. There are three tracks which are:-

The small claims track, for cases worth less than £1,000 in personal injury matters and £5,000 in all other cases.

The fast track, for cases worth less than £15,000 and where the Trial will last no longer than one day.

The multi-track, for cases worth more than £15,000 or those which are especially complex.

The fast track aims to provide a quick and simplistic procedure for resolving cases. The Courts will seek to manage the case to encourage parties to narrow down the issues. Trials will be listed within 30 weeks of allocation and will not last for more than one day. No oral expert evidence is likely to be allowed.

In cases allocated to the multi-track where the Courts will still keep strict controls on the progression and expense of cases by way of active case management. In mullet-track cases Trials will last longer and there will be allowance for oral evidence, but parties will still be expected to co-operate and agree what expert evidence they can.

The role of the expert

One of the problems with the old procedure was that each side would build up a team of experts which could cause delay and significantly increase the costs of a case. Lord Woolf’s reforms are aimed at limiting the experts involvement so that in fast track cases no experts will give oral evidence at Trial and in mullet-track cases it is highly unlikely that there will be more than two or three experts, even in the most complicated cases. Under the old Rules, it was felt that experts had become too partisan by always maintaining their client’s own position. The new Rules promote a sense of co-operation between the parties’ experts whose over-riding duty is now to the Court and no longer to the party that has instructed that expert. What this means is that the expert will no longer be able to alter their reports at the request of a client and their opinion will be final and binding.

Offers to settle

The Rules have introduced an important new weapon to the Claimant in the form of "Part 36 Offers". Unlike before, a Claimant can now make a formal offer to settle to the other side on the issues of liability and/or damages, even before proceedings are commenced. The penalty on a Defendant for not beating a Claimant’s offer is in terms of interest on damages and costs. This new weapon puts great tactical pressure on the opposition and will be of great advantage to individual Claimant’s.

Will justice be done?

Lord Woolf’s reforms are aimed to ensure that Solicitors are encouraged not to spend too much time on lower value cases. Whilst it can be understood that it is wrong that legal costs exceed the level of compensation, it is inevitable that some injured people will not be able in future to pursue their claims to the same extent that they did before because they may be of low value. For example, the Courts may not allow the necessary level of investigation and preparation to be carried out. Effectively, this may restrict access to the justice that the Rules are seeking actively to promote. It is to be hoped that the new Rules will encourage the insurance industry to investigate claims properly, to admit fault more promptly and to bring about cases to a swift conclusion. Approximately 85% of cases settle prior to starting proceedings. If those cases can be settled within six months to one year then the new Rules will certainly have achieved a positive result. The anxiety is that those cases which proceed through the Courts, particularly in the fast track, may find too heavy a restriction on the level of investigation and evidence that can be produced to support the claim.

Preparing for change

Russell Jones & Walker have been at the centre of reform through our involvement in the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and the Law Society to ensure that individuals’ interests are protected. We have developed a new case management computer system to ensure that we obtain maximum assistance from information technology to comply with the new Rules. Over the next year or so the law will be developed as the new Rules come into play and I hope to keep you informed as to how the Rules are actually working in progress

Barry Macloskey Solicitors

Civil Litigation

Civil Litigation involves the solving of any dispute through the civil courts (the local County Court and the High Court). As a wide the term ‘Civil Litigation’ covers such a wide area, sub-areas such as Crime or Bankruptcy are usually dealt with by specialist lawyers.

Civil Litigation work can be extremely varied but it normally results from disputes arising out of another person’s wrongful acts (commonly called ‘Negligence’). Barry Macloskey Solicitors

You may think you will never need to resort to law, but many seemingly ordinary situations can only be finally resolved if you know your legal rights. For instance there is legislation designed to protect your rights as a consumer of goods and services. We have experience of planning law, building disputes, boundary and neighbour disputes, debt problems and bankruptcy.

We can negotiate on your behalf, represent you in the County or High Courts. We can also advise you on the availability of Public Funding (formerly Legal Aid). We may be able to take your case under a "no win no fee arrangement", subject to the case meeting certain conditions.

We have an experienced team skilled in handling most litigation disputes in the County and High Courts. These include Landlord and Tenant, contractual problems, insolvency, general debt recovery, unlawful behaviour, defective goods and other consumer disputes and neighbour disputes

From the outset we seek a viable solution to attain your objectives and clearly set out the options available. In appropriate cases we may share the risk with you by taking the cases on a "No Win No Fee" basis or in employment cases, on a "Contingency" basis. The members of the Team are experienced advocates.