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CIVIL LIT SGS 1
CASE ANALYSIS & INVESTIGATION
Overriding objectives
CPR 1.1(1) - Overriding objective to ‘enable the court to deal with cases justly and at proportionate
cost’
CPR 1.1(2) - Dealing with cases justly includes, as far as is practicable:
- Ensuring parties are on equal footing
- Saving expense
- Dealing with case in a way proportionate to amount of money involved, importance of case,
complexity of issues and nancial position of each party
- Ensuring cases dealt with expeditiously and fairly
- Allowing to it an appropriate share of court’s resources, while taking into account the need to allot
resources to other cases
- Ensuring compliance with rules, practice directions and orders
OVERVIEW OF A CIVIL LITIGATION CLAIM
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1 Pre-action protocols Set out best practice to be adopted by parties before the
court is involved in a dispute. There are speci c pre-action
protocols to follow for dealing with certain types of claims,
e.g. negligence (p503) or deformation.
Encourage a ‘cards on the table’ approach and to resolve
dispute without involving the courts.
Court will expect the parties to have exchanged su cient
information to:
• understand each other’s position
• make decisions about how to proceed
• try to settle the issues without proceedings
• consider ADR
• support the e cient management of those
proceedings
• reduce the costs of resolving the dispute
2 Claim form (CPR 7) Proceedings are commenced when a claim form is issued
by the court at the request of the claimant. Sets out the
claimants case.
3 Particulars of claim (CPR 16) Statement of case containing the full details of a claimant’s
claim. Can either be included with the claim form, prepared
in a seperate document and served with the claim form, or
after the claim form with 14 days.
4 Acknowledgement of service Defendant les an acknowledgement of service if:
(CPR 10) - It wishes to defend the claim but has been unable to le
a defence within 14 days
- Wishes to dispute the court’s jurisdiction
5 Admissions (CPR 14) Defendant admits the whole of part of the claim in writing
within 14 days.
6 Defence (CPR 7) Defendant defends the whole of part of the claim in writing
within 14 days.
7 Judgement in default (CPR 12) If defendant does not le one of the above three, claimant
may obtain judgement in default.
8 Party 20 claim (CPR 20) Defendant may make a counterclaim.
9 Reply (CPR 15) Claimant can allege facts in answer to a defence which
were not included in the particulars of claim.
10 Further information and/or Party can make a written request to the other party
clari cation (CPR 18) requiring clari cation of a statement of case.
11 Interim applications (CPR 23-25) Interim application may be made before or during the
course of an action for an extension of time or to amend
statement of case.
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12 Allocation (CPR 26) Once defence has been lled, court becomes actively
involved in the management of the case, and will allocation
an appropriate amount of time, resources and a track:
- Small claim track
- Fast track
- Multi-track
13 Directions (CPR 26-29) Case is allocated to multi-track and model directions apply
(CPR 29.1)
Case management conference hearing is held and
attended by both solicitors.
14 Disclosure and inspection (CPR Disclosure: Each party tells the other what documents or
31) information they hold that are relevant to the case.
Inspection: Allowing the other party to physically see a
disclosed document.
15 Witness statements (CPR 32) Exchange of witness statements.
16 Expert evidence (CPR 35) Court order is required to adduce expert evidence at trial.
17 Part 36 o ers (CPR 36) Mechanism to promote settlement. If an o er to settle is
rejected by a party, this can be taken into account by the
court if it is not accepted and proceedings then follow.
18 Trial and enforcement If settlement is not reached, case goes to trial. Court will
determine damages and which party should pay the costs
of the proceedings.
COURT STRUCTURE
Claim can only be bought in a court if it has jurisdiction. Generally, claimant is free to choose which court
to start the claim in. Restrictions:
Personal injury claims:
→ Must be started in CC if < £50,000
→ May be started in HC or CC if > £50,000 -
Other claims:
→ Must be started in the CC if < £100,000
→ May be started in HC or CC if > £100,000 (7A PD 2.1)
If you have a choice, should consider the factors in 7A PD 2.4, e.g. complexity of matter, public
importance, costs involved. If claim form is to be issued in the HC, it must state that the claimant expects
to recover more than £100,000 (CPR 16.3).
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CPR 16.3(6) - Financial worth of a claim - consider: interest, costs, counterclaims, contributory
negligence, deduction of social security bene ts.
If case is brought in the wrong court, it may be transferred under CPR 30 and order the claimant to pay
the costs of transfer. Court may also impose cost sanctions (s51 SCA).
PRE-ACTION CONSIDERATIONS
First interview: • Other side’s position and their nancial status
(can hire an enquiry agent, check relevant
• Client’s objectives registers, company search, legal aid)
• Identifying facts and liability • Professional conduct issues
• Merits of the case, remedies, limitation • Costs
periods • How to fund claim
• Evidence available • What happens next, time frames
• Alternative ways of achieving the client’s
objectives Follow rst interview with rst latter, summarising
main points covered and to document the
retainer.
Merits of the case
1. Duty
→ Contract between the claimant and defendant and duties were owed under that contact. Express
or implied terms.
→ Tort - duties were owned, e.g. common law of negligence or statutory duty
2. Breach of duty
→ Evidence to support the breach of contract term, e.g. goods were not of a satisfactory quality
→ Tort - establish fell below the standard of care
3. Causation
→ Matter of fact, the breach of duty caused the client loss. Evidence to demonstrate the causation.
Was loss mitigated?
4. Damage
→ Prove the loss su ered was foreseeable (not too remote) and the amount of that loss
Concurrent liabilities: can be an action in both tort and contract
Measuring damages:
• Contract claims - aim to place the claimant in the position it would have been in if the contract had
been properly performed
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