One of the lesser discussed aspects of the Jackson reforms was the formal introduction of concurrent expert evidence, aka “hot-tubbing“, as an optional procedure to be adopted at the discretion of the court. As described in PD 35.11, it involves hearing evidence concurrently from the experts in a particular discipline, with the judge initiating the questioning and discussion, rather than having each expert give evidence and be cross-examined separately in the usual way. Continue reading
During a recent visit to the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford (CCMCC), I was taken aback to learn that in the year April 2015 to March 2016, the CCMCC issued 322,000 claims. In this “age of austerity” and with judicial time and resources at a premium, how is HMCTS responding to the challenge of dealing efficiently with high-volume litigation?
One recent initiative has been the introduction of the County Court Legal Advisers Pilot Scheme, for which provision is made in PD 51K (the Pilot). The Pilot applies to money claims started at the County Court Business Centre in Northampton (CCBC) and at the CCMCC. It commenced on 1 October 2015 and was scheduled to end on 30 September 2016. However, in light of positive experiences to date, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee has approved an extension to the duration and scope of the Pilot, which will now run until 31 March 2017. Continue reading
Disclosure of documents is a significant driver of costs. Where the relevant documents are electronic, the problem is usually exacerbated. This is simply because the vast majority of documents are now created electronically and the proliferation and storage capacity of day-to-day IT equipment is such that the amount of information available may be enormous. Continue reading