Keeping The Woolf From Your Door - Part 3

Allocation
Once a Defence has been filed each party must complete and return to the court an "Allocation Questionnaire". The questionnaire can request the court to stay (stop) proceedings to allow Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to take place.

Based on the questionnaire the court will allocate the case to a suitable Track. An allocation hearing can be held by the court if required.

In deciding on allocation the court will have to consider amongst other things, the financial value of the claim, the nature of the remedy sought, the complexity, the number of parties, the value of the Counter-Claim and any oral (spoken) evidence required in the case.

If a party fails to complete and return the allocation questionnaire the court can make an "Unless Order". This means that a party's Claim or Defence could be "struck out" if they fail to return the allocation questionnaire.

Cases will then be allocated to one of three tracks namely, "Small Claims Track", "Fast Track" and "Multi-Track". Each track differs in the degree of case management which will be applied. The court has powers to:

a. Allocate to a higher track than attributable to a Claim.

b. Allocate to a lower track with the party's consent.

The court will consider the following criteria:

1. Financial value of the Claim and the amount in dispute.

2. Nature of remedy sought.

3. Likely complexity of the facts/law or evidence.

4. Number of parties.

5. Value of any Counter-Claim.

6. Amount of oral evidence.

7. Importance of Claim to third parties.

8. Views of parties or circumstances of any of the parties.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
The new rules aim to encourage settlement of disputes without the need to go to court. Parties are encouraged to mediate and there are various organisations which offer mediation. If the parties go to court without trying mediation the court can take this into account when deciding the costs.

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