REUTERS | Jeenah Moon
March 14, 2019

Open justice: rule changes to increase transparency in the civil courts

From 6 April 2019, a number of changes to the Civil Procedure Rules will come into effect with the intention of reinforcing the principle of open justice and clarifying how it operates within the civil justice system. While some of those changes simply bring the rules into line with principles established in case law, there are a number of new provisions which may have an impact on the conduct of hearings in the civil courts, including a new power to direct the compilation or sharing of a summary of a hearing with an unrepresented party. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
March 12, 2019

Electronic time-recording and summary assessment: 104th CPR update two-year pilot scheme

In this blog, I focus on the costs aspects of the Practice Direction amendments contained in the 104th CPR update. Firstly, there is a change to Practice Direction 3E with a replacement Annex C Precedent R Budget Discussion Report. Not much to comment on in that regard; case law has previously dealt with issues as to incurred costs when budgeting and the splitting of profit costs from disbursements in the new form is no great shakes (when preparing a Precedent R in the past, I used to show clear workings on any proposed reductions in any event. Perish the thought that counsel or the court at a costs and case management conference actually have to have a calculator to hand!). Continue reading →