Keeping The Woolf From Your Door - Part 6

Deciding A Specific Issue
For cases which will not involve a substantial dispute of fact (e.g. approval of infant settlements, enforcing a right to have access to medical records), a Part 8 Claim Form should be used and the case will proceed under the Part 8 Special Procedure.

1. Only an Acknowledgment of Service is served with the Claim Form.

2. The Defendant must file and serve the Acknowledgment of Service to be able to take part in the hearing. No Defence is required.

3. There is no formal allocation to a Track.

4. Default Judgment is not available to the Claimant and a hearing must take place.

5. There will be Automatic Directions for the exchange of evidence.

Small Claims Track

1. The small claims limit is £5,000, for personal injury cases the limit is £1,000.

2. A new small claims limit of £1,000 will be introduced for housing disrepair cases.

3. Interest and costs are not included for the purposes of establishing the value of the claim.

4. Paper adjudication if the parties consent (i.e. no hearing is necessary).

5. Tailored directions - e.g. holiday claims, building disputes etc. will have special timetables.

6. Parties need not attend the hearing as long as they give 7 days notice to the court and the other party before the hearing that they will not be attending. The court will take in to account written evidence of parties sent to the court and will give reasons for the decision reached.

7. Maximum of 1 day hearing (5 hours).

Fast Track

1. This is for claims over £5,000, but less than £15,000.

2. Standard directions (Timetable) - will be given on how the case should proceed including standard disclosure of documents and witness statements.

3. It will be necessary to complete a Listing Questionnaire giving details of witnesses, experts etc.

4. There will be 30 weeks between directions and start of trial, so cases should now be heard quicker.

5. There will be a maximum of 1 day for hearings (5 hours).

6. There will be no oral (spoken) expert evidence at trial except in exceptional cases.

7. Fixed Trial costs will apply:

Multi-Track

1. This is for claims over £15,000.

2. There is no standard procedure - either standard directions will be given, or case management conference, or pre-trial review hearings held, or a mixture of these.

3. There is a more flexible time period between directions and start of trial.

4.There is no limit on length of trial.

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