INTRODUCTION
The issue of court proceedings in respect of your matter and all steps taken in respect of any court proceedings will be governed by the Civil Procedure Rules. Under those rules the court is subject to the overriding objective of dealing with all cases justly. Dealing with the case justly includes, so far as is practicable: -- Ensuring that the parties are on an EQUAL FOOTING
- SAVING EXPENSE
- Dealing with the case in ways which are PROPORTIONATE TO THE VALUE OF THE case, the importance of the case, the complexity of the issues and the financial position of each party
- Ensuring that the case is dealt with EXPEDITIOUSLY AND FAIRLY
- Ensuring that the case is allotted an appropriate share of the COURT'S RESOURCES whilst taking into account the need to allot resources to other cases.
CONDUCT
It is now the duty of all parties to litigation, and their legal advisors, to help the court to further the above-mentioned objective. The extent to which that is done will be judged in the light of the parties conduct both before and after the issue of court proceedings. A failure to assist the court in achieving the overriding objective by, for example, acting unreasonably; seeking to increase costs unnecessarily; or otherwise to exert improper pressure on your opponent through the use of the court process; the commencement of a court case before all reasonable steps have been taken to try to settle the dispute or the reliance on arguments in the dispute which are either unnecessary or irrelevant are likely to result in the making of Orders whereby you are responsible for your opponent's costs incurred as a result of any such failure or conduct.As your case progresses we will advise you on what is necessary and upon what can properly be done to advance your case. It is important for you to realise that you cannot be a party to any action, which is contrary to the overriding objective we may reserve the right to cease acting for you if you insist upon them taking steps which we reasonably consider to be improper in the context of the objective.
COURT PAPERS
In the event of court proceedings a written statement setting out the facts upon which you base your case will need to be prepared. Copies will be served on your opponent and will be lodged with the court. The case statements must contain a "Statement of Truth" which must be signed either by you or by us on your behalf. It is normal policy for the actual party to the case to sign the Statement of Truth, although in exceptional circumstances such as the issue of proceedings in an emergency, we may sign the Statement of Truth on your behalf. If you sign the Statement of Truth without believing the facts or any of them in the document to be true, you will be guilty of a contempt of court and you may be punished accordingly.If we sign the Statement of Truth on your behalf we will be certifying that you have instructed us that the facts in it are true and that we have given you the above advice on the consequences of signing the Statement of Truth. Therefore, our signature of the Statement of Truth on your behalf does not excuse you from punishment if any fact in the document is untrue.
The best way to protect you from errors or misunderstandings is to ask you to sign the Statement of Truth and it is for that reason we will usually require a written authority from you, either by post or by fax, to confirm that you are aware of the above and that you have authorised us to sign any case statement on your behalf.
COURT FEES
Fees will be payable to the court on the commencement of your case, upon the making of any interim applications and upon the filing of certain documents which the court will require us to complete and file. The most important of these documents are the Allocation Questionnaire and the Listing Questionnaire both of which must be filed within the time stipulated by the court. We will require payment from you on account of these fees and we will not pay them on your behalf. If you fail to pay the fees you risk having your claim, counter claim or defence struck out and it is therefore essential that when we ask you for a court fee you pay it without delay. If your case or claim is struck out you will be required to pay your opponent's costs of the action.PROGRESS OF YOUR CASE AND CASE MANAGEMENT
If you are involved in a case, which is defended, and which therefore needs to be prepared for a trial the court will, at an early stage, allocate it to one of three case management "tracks" each of which is subject to a different procedure. At the outset of your case we will endeavour to identify the likely case management track and we will explain to you the likely consequences of allocation to that track in terms both of the costs implications and of the procedure to be followed. The court will specify what steps need to be taken for case preparation and will stipulate the dates by which such steps are to be taken.In addition, upon allocation of your matter to a particular "track" the court will fix a date or specify a period within which the trial is likely to take place. It follows that any timetable must be carefully observed and that all specified steps must be taken by the date required by the court. A failure to follow the timetable will have any one or more of the following consequences: -
- Loss of your right to call evidence on any particular point with the result that such evidence will not be before the court at trial.
- The need to ask the court for further time within which to take any particular step. The court may refuse to allow any further time.
- The risk that your case will be struck out through failure to do what you are required to do.
- In any of the above mentioned cases a costs penalty, which might be substantial.
In no circumstances will we accept responsibility for any costs consequence occasioned by your failure to take any necessary action within any necessary time scale, which we advise.
DISCLOSURE AND DUTY OF SEARCH
Documents can play an important part in any court case. The Civil Procedure Rules provide for disclosure of documents by all parties to their opponents. The documents, which you must disclose, are: -The documents upon which you rely; and
the documents which –
- Adversely affect your own case;
- Adversely affect another party’s case; or
- Support another party’s case.
You should pass to us as soon as possible all documents that you have relating to your case, together with details of what steps you have taken to find documents. If you feel that disclosure of documents should be limited as described above, you should let us know immediately so that we can consider whether such a limitation is justified.
Failure to give proper disclosure of documents will prevent you from relying on any document which you fail to disclose or in respect of which you fail to allow your opponent inspection. If you fail to give disclosure of a document which supports another party's case or adversely affects your own case, an application may be made against you for specific disclosure and if the court concludes that you have failed adequately to comply with your obligations in respect of documents, it will make such order as is necessary to ensure that the obligations are properly complied with. This will, at the very least, involve an order for the giving of proper disclosure within a very short time and an order against you for your opponent's costs of making the application.
COSTS
If you are successful on your claim or your defence you will, subject to the Civil Procedure Rules, be entitled to seek from your opponent reimbursement of the majority of the costs which you are liable to pay to us for the work which we have done in pursuing your case for you.The Civil Procedure Rules stipulate that in certain circumstances the amount of costs recoverable by you from your opponent will be limited to less than the value of the time spent by us on your case. Any difference between the value of the time spent by us on your case and the amount recoverable from your opponent remains payable by you.
In addition to the above, if your case is allocated by the court to the fast track for case management purposes, the most which you will be entitled to recover from your opponent for the trial of your matter will be £750. For a trial which lasts less than a full day the amount recoverable from your opponent reduces proportionately to the length of time which your trial takes. Notwithstanding this, we will charge for the time spent on your trial by reference to the amount of time actually spent by us on the preparation and presentation of your case at trial and we will usually charge a minimum of £750 plus VAT for that work even if you recover less from your opponent on an assessment of your costs by the court.
In respect of any pre-trial application the winner of the application will usually be entitled to have his or her costs paid by the loser. If you are ordered to pay the costs of any such application we will write to inform you of that fact and to explain why. Usually you will be required to make payment of any such Costs Order within 14 days of the date of the application.
Any Order for Costs made against you is enforceable by your opponent as if it were a Court Judgment. Further your right to continue with your claim or defence may be lost if you fail to make payment in accordance with any Court Order. For this reason we recommend that you consider obtaining insurance against litigation costs unless you are legally aided.
If you become entitled to Legal Aid to prosecute or to defend your case your liability to meet any Costs Order against you will be enforceable only with the court's permission and the court will only give such permission if it considers it reasonable for you to be required to pay.
We hope these notes are some use to you.
Please use our other services if we can be of assistance to you.
