Life after Woolf
The 26th April 1999 was a momentous day for all lawyers involved in civil litigation with the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR).
The CPR were the implementation of the Woolf Reforms which had undertaken a complete review of the rules governing court procedure.
I am unfortunately, old enough to remember life as a litigator prior to 1999. There were two sets of rules, one governing the High Court (the White Book) and one the County Court (the Green Book). Each set of rules had its own peculiarities and the Woolf review was extremely critical of them. Litigation was lawyer lead and disputes could take years to come to trial if the parties so desired with the court restricted in what it could do. Everyone played their cards close to their chest and it was often the case that you may not know the full extent of your opponent's case until trial.
The CPR turned the whole process on its head. We were no longer to be litigators but dispute resolvers. The new rules made it clear that a trial at court was to be a last resort and all parties were expected to investigate alternative methods of resolving their dispute, such as mediation.
Parties were expected to be open about their claim and defence from the outset and were expected to exchange relevant information via pre-action protocol procedures.
One of the most fundamental changes brought about by the CPR was the involvement of the court once proceedings had begun. The court was to ensure that the parties complied with the overriding objective of the CPR to conduct proceedings as fairly, expeditiously and cost effectively as possible making the best use of available resources. To facilitate this the courts were required to actively manage cases.
For the first time the court were now in control of litigation and dictated the pace at which matters proceeded to trial. By way of example, District Judges could now telephone lawyers to find out the progress on a case. I vividly recall answering my phone shortly after the implementation of the rules to be told by the switchboard that a local District Judge was on the line. I quickly did a mental check of all my cases and took the call only to receive an apology from the District Judge about his delay in delivering a Judgment!
Ten years on has the CPR delivered what it promised?
Some would say no and for various reasons. For example, the pre-action protocol procedure causes parties to incur significant costs up front which may be irrecoverable. Further, the vision of a single set of simplified court rules has not materialised. The last edition of the White Book ran to 3933 pages. The current CPR with supplement is 5827 pages.
There are many, and I am one, who feel the CPR has delivered. I believe its biggest achievement has been to make lawyers change their attitude, which is no mean feat, and treat disputes in a modern and pro-active way.
The CPR is an organic document and it will continue to develop as the need arises. I await with interest the next 10 years.
For more information about Higgs' Dispute Resolution & Litigation department please click here or contact Beverley Scriven on 01384 342100.
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